Author
City Hall & Transportation Reporter — Elena reports on Atlanta's daily commute, transit fights (MARTA is her first love), and the city budget. She learned to read a council agenda before s
52 stories
Local
Atlanta News First and WSB-TV: late-night storms moved through metro Atlanta early Tuesday, downing trees and power lines. Outages peaked near 10,000 customers before falling to hundreds by dawn as Georgia Power crews worked.
Local
WSB-TV: GDOT’s full I-285 closure between Cascade Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive missed the scheduled 5 a.m. Monday reopen; the agency told Channel 2 it is targeting 7 a.m. while detours via I-20 and Langford Parkway remain in force.
Local
Atlanta News First: GDOT closed I-285 both ways between Cascade Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive this weekend as part of a $206 million rehabilitation project, with work scheduled through 5 a.m. Monday and heat-safety concerns for crews and drivers.
Local
FOX 5 Atlanta and WUGA, citing Athens-Clarke County Fire: a construction worker fell into an aggregate placer’s auger during a Friday morning pour on the Athens Bypass near Atlanta Highway; firefighters, National EMS, and a Piedmont Athens Regional surgical team worked nearly two hours on the extrication.
Local
Atlanta News First: the MARTA Board of Directors on Thursday selected interim leader Jonathan Hunt as permanent general manager and chief executive after a national search that also included finalists from Washington Metro and Jacksonville Transit.
Local
County commissioners told Mayor Andre Dickens they would buy ACDC for $56.5 million — well below the mayor’s prior $80 million ask — with an Aug. 31 response deadline as the county’s housing agreement expires at year’s end.
Local
WSB-TV: A narrow 4-3 Planning Commission vote advances Jamestown’s mixed-use redevelopment of the 100-acre North Point Mall site, including a proposed NHL-ready arena, toward City Council in two weeks.
Local
Atlanta News First: Both directions of the Perimeter between South Atlanta Road and Paces Ferry Road reopened Sunday night instead of the planned 5 a.m. Monday end time as crews finished concrete slab work.
Local
Sherry Boston wants Judge Yolanda Parker-Smith off all criminal cases while a Judicial Qualifications Commission misconduct case proceeds; former Chief Justice Harold Melton and a bipartisan prosecutor bloc filed support.
Local
A unanimous Monday resolution presses for more cooling centers, broader outreach, and clearer trigger rules after critics blasted the city's Fourth of July heat response.
Weather
Peachtree City’s Monday Area Forecast Discussion and FOX 5’s back-to-school briefing both flag higher shower and thunderstorm coverage Tuesday after a milder first-day pattern Monday.
Local
Assembly and outdoor-festival permits signed July 29 green-light free F1 and off-road demos on Hank Aaron Drive Aug. 1, with heavy road closures already underway.
State
A rule set to take effect Sept. 14 would stop treating habitat destruction as ‘harm’ under the Endangered Species Act, drawing sharp criticism from Georgia wildlife leaders and environmental lawyers.
State
A Barrow County judge imposed life without parole Tuesday after the 16-year-old pleaded guilty to 55 counts in the September 2024 school shooting that killed four people.
State
The southeast Georgia swamp is Georgia's first World Heritage destination and the first U.S. national wildlife refuge on the list, after a decades-long push culminated in a vote in Busan, South Korea.
Local
Residents can review park and trail concepts July 25 and discuss brownfield cleanup July 27 for the Chattahoochee Brick Company site.
Local
Atlanta News First has declared a First Alert Weather Day for Tuesday as another round of slow-moving thunderstorms is expected to drop 2 to 4 inches of rain in isolated spots. A Heat Advisory may follow later in the week.
Local
A wet weather pattern will keep highs in the low 80s through midweek before the heat builds back into the low 90s by Friday.
Local
The National Weather Service extended a heat advisory across north and central Georgia through 8 p.m. Saturday as feels-like temperatures climb back into dangerous territory.
Local
A weak cold front brought scattered thunderstorms and temperatures in the upper 80s Tuesday. The heat returns by Friday for the July 4th holiday weekend.
Local
Highs will climb into the mid-90s Monday before a cold front brings thunderstorms and cooler temperatures by Tuesday evening.
Local
The City of Atlanta will reopen four additional cooling centers Monday in anticipation of heat index values returning to the upper 90s by midweek.
Local
A weak cold front pushed through north Georgia overnight, dropping temperatures into the upper 80s Sunday. The heat returns in full force by Tuesday.
Local
The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning for Thursday afternoon across metro Atlanta, with feels-like temperatures forecast to hit 108 to 111 degrees in some areas.
Local
Atlanta's Department of Watershed Management is probing reports of dead fish on the South River that may have been caused by a chemical spill at the South River Water Reclamation Center, the city's second major fish-kill investigation in a month.
Local
The National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of north Georgia including Fulton and DeKalb counties through 10 p.m. Monday, with damaging winds and heavy rain forecast.
Local
The National Weather Service has extended a heat advisory across north and central Georgia through 8 p.m. Tuesday, with feels-like temperatures forecast to hit 100 to 105 degrees each afternoon through the July 4th weekend.
Local
The last group-stage match at Mercedes-Benz Stadium — Congo DR vs. Uzbekistan — wrapped Friday. The next match is July 1. In between, sanitation teams are cleaning up, MARTA is holding five-minute frequencies, and fan zones across the metro remain open.
Local
A CSX freight train struck a semi-truck early Friday morning near Lee Street, sparking a fire and scattering cargo. MARTA rail service was temporarily suspended as safety crews inspected overhead structures.
Traffic
The airport expects more than 370,000 travelers on its busiest day and is urging passengers to arrive 2.5 hours early for domestic flights and 3 hours early for international. The rush runs through July 7.
Local
More than 268,000 passengers moved through the airport on Thursday, breaking a 2019 record and signaling a full recovery from the pandemic-era travel slowdown.
Politics
The 11-4 vote authorizes emergency overflow capacity, case management, and medical screening for the city's two shelter sites through the end of the fiscal year. The mayor is expected to sign.
Local
The $87 million program will resurface 230 lane-miles of residential streets over the next two years — more than the past three years combined.
Local
After nearly a decade of planning and a half-billion dollars in spending, the two-mile missing segment between Oakland City and West End is on track to open by fall. But three key segments are still years away.
Opinion
If MARTA can run five-minute headways, deploy ambassadors at every station, and move 220,000 rail riders in a day, why can't it do that on a Tuesday in September?
Local
Wednesday's Morocco-Haiti match drove rail ridership to 2.3 times its normal weekday volume. Transit officials say the agency has moved 1.7 million passengers to World Cup events since June 11.
Local
After two years of community meetings and four rounds of revisions, MARTA's new bus map goes live August 24. Some routes double in frequency. Some disappear entirely.
Local
Atlanta hosts eight matches starting Monday, including a semifinal. The city has spent two years and $300 million on security, transit, and infrastructure. Here's how to navigate it.
Local
The agency had aimed to have its new railcars in service for the FIFA World Cup, but ongoing testing and safety certification requirements pushed the rollout past the June 11 start date.
Local
The south walkway is the latest piece of a billion-dollar effort to modernize aging stations — but World Cup preparations will pause the work next month
Local
Riders can now tap bank cards and mobile wallets at fare gates across the rail system
Local
Riders can now tap bank cards and mobile wallets at faregates and on buses as MARTA phases in its next-generation fare system.
Local
Redesigned routes promise more frequent service and shorter wait times across metro Atlanta
Local
The most comprehensive bus redesign since the 1970s triples high-frequency corridors and debuts Atlanta's first Bus Rapid Transit line.
Traffic
Georgia DOT lifts construction lane closures on major interstates through April 12 as spring break traffic ramps up across the metro.
Traffic
The 16-mile initiative will add dynamically priced express lanes and toll-free bus rapid transit access along one of metro Atlanta's most congested corridors
Local
New rideshare-style service fills transit gaps with app-based, on-demand rides in underserved areas
Local
Curb-to-curb microtransit service aims to bridge first-and-last-mile gaps ahead of broader bus network overhaul
Politics
The proposal would steer $5 billion into affordable housing, transit expansion, and grocery and health care in seven historically underinvested neighborhoods. The catch: it depends on extending the lifespan of all eight of Atlanta's tax-allocation districts.
Politics
The Mitchell, a 19-story 304-unit luxury apartment tower, has opened for residents, more than a decade after the original stadium deal and years after the project nearly collapsed. The developer says the next phase breaks ground before spring.
Local
The 1.3-mile segment closes the last gap between University Avenue and Huff Road, letting walkers, runners, and cyclists cover 6.7 uninterrupted miles — the longest stretch of paved BeltLine trail in corridor history.
Local
Bus detours are now in place as crews begin deconstructing the iconic concrete canopy. MARTA says the full transformation will take three years and $230 million, and includes a new public plaza, expanded retail, and a complete redesign of the station's bus loop.