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Jan 22, 2025 | 
ajc.com | Rebecca McCarthy
If you were lucky enough to meet Rabbi Alvin Sugarman, you never forgot him because you would leave the meeting knowing he had both heard and seen you. Whether you were a member of The Temple, Atlanta’s oldest Jewish congregation, a civil rights worker or a member of the Atlanta Rotary Club, Rabbi Sugarman valued you as a child of God. “He was so empathetic,” says Jackie Garson Howard, who, like her mother, grew up attending The Temple.
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Jan 22, 2025 | 
flagpole.com | Rebecca McCarthy
The Clarke County school board held the first of three required public hearings Jan. 14 on its decision to opt out of House Bill 581, passed by the legislature during the last session and approved by voters in November. Many other school districts—including Gwinnett, Oconee and Madison County—are also opting out due to the strain the measure could put on their budgets. The provision ties property tax assessments to the rate of inflation, not to a rise in a home’s value.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
flagpole.com | Rebecca McCarthy
There were a few months of choppy water for the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation a while ago. But a new interim director came on board in March, and a new board of directors was installed in July, so members believe there’s smooth sailing ahead for the nonprofit arts organization. After a period where two employees were fired and members accused the board of directors of a lack of transparency, the board now meets monthly, and its meetings are open to the public.
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Jan 9, 2025 | 
ajc.com | Rebecca McCarthy
Like his siblings, Shelby Wilkes worked on the family farm south of Jackson, Mississippi. And like them, he listened to his parents preach the value of getting an education. He left Crystal Springs, Mississippi, as his high school’s valedictorian and never stopped learning, becoming Georgia’s first African American retina specialist and a leading state advocate for good eye care. “He liked medicine,” said his widow, Dr. Jettie Burnett.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
ajc.com | Rebecca McCarthy
While other students at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, were deciding what to do with their lives, Christy Davis knew she wanted to be involved in politics. “She was a poli sci major, and she really got the philosophical concepts,” said longtime friend Cynthia Holly Jones, now a Baltimore City circuit court judge. They met on the first day of classes at Chatham, now a university, and remain close friends. “She talked about being a lobbyist.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
ajc.com | Rebecca McCarthy
As a teenager, John Scatena was part of the Quadells, a doo-wop singing group that managed to score a contract with 20th Century Fox Records. The members went on to open for a few bigger acts before disbanding and going on to jobs and college. Decades later, when the chance came for Scatena to buy a jazz venue in metro Atlanta, he jumped at it. And he treated the staff, musicians and customers at Café 290 in Sandy Springs like an extension of his large Italian family — with love and respect.
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Nov 24, 2024 | 
tandfonline.com | Jason Roach |Liam Curran |Ashley Cartwright |Rebecca McCarthy |Rebecca McCarthy
ABSTRACTThis paper presents the findings of a mixed-method study exploring the self-reported negative impact on wellbeing of working in policing in England and Wales during the Covid-19 pandemic. For the first time, findings relating to the wellbeing of UK police and police staff are presented from two different points in time during the pandemic period – the initial ‘lockdown phase’ (March 2020) and Autumn 2021 as the UK began to return to pre-pandemic social behaviours.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
ajc.com | Rebecca McCarthy
The north star for Honey Gfroerer was one her mother followed: “Love One Another.” That commandment of Jesus guided her to love not only her family but also the wider community wherever she lived, in suburban Chicago or metro Atlanta. “She loved serving other people, that’s just how she was,” says her son Tim Gfroerer. His older sister Marne Gfroerer Matthews says her mother’s desire to help others “was just part of her DNA.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
flagpole.com | Rebecca McCarthy
There’s something for almost everyone at the Taylor-Grady House this week. Beautiful Turkish rugs, delicious food, great music, entertainment and a variety of soaps, arts and other handmade items—all will be available from Wednesday until Sunday. “People seem to have a preconceived notion of who goes to the Taylor-Grady House,” says Ben Gerarve. “Our goal is to have as many people as possible come to the house and to have as diverse a population as possible.
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Nov 7, 2024 | 
ajc.com | Rebecca McCarthy
A shock wave rippled through Grant Park as neighbors learned that longtime resident and community activist Paul Zucca died unexpectedly on Halloween. “When I came down the stairs on Friday, I was alone for the first time in 47 years,” said Zucca’s partner John Newcomb. The couple has been a vibrant part of the neighborhood and its revitalization since moving from Midtown in 1982. Then, friends wouldn’t visit “us because we were south of I-20,” said Newcomb.
