July 3, 2006

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young are hoping to raise enough money to bring the personal papers of civil rights leader Martin Luther King home to Atlanta.

The documents — including manuscripts and King’s personal library — were scheduled to be auctioned June 30 by King’s children at Sotheby’s in New York. The auction house expects to bring in between $15 to $30 million. City leaders are working with influential residents to collect the money.

Nine months after Katrina, Bay St. Louis Mayor Eddie Favre, is wearing Bermuda shorts, Favre’s only clothes remaining from when Katrina flattened the Gulf Coast. He said he would not shed his shorts until the city is back on its feet. Favre, 52, welcomed the ribbing he got during a visit by President Bush, and even wore them to the recent annual Radio and Television Correspondents Association Dinner in Washington.

The five-term mayor, a distant cousin of Green Bay Packer’s quarterback and Mississippi native Brett Favre, saw the hurricane demolish more than 70 percent of the city’s homes and businesses, scatter thousands of residents, demolish the tax base, leaving behind tens of millions in damage to the city’s infrastructure.

The June 8 Washington Post, in a laudatory column by David Broder, highlighted the leadership that Providence (R.I.) Mayor David Cicilline is giving to his community.

A “self-described liberal,” Cicilline is credited with setting up many reforms, attended Brown University and Georgetown Law School, returning to Providence to set up a criminal defense business.

As a state legislator, the mayor sponsored many reform and ethic bills.

He was sworn-in as mayor in January 2003, beating three others in the Democratic primary.

Former Knoxville Mayor, a Past Conference of Mayors President, and current U.S. Ambassador to Poland Victor Ashe was one of five champions recently honored at the Fourth Annual National Trust/HGTV Restore America Gala. The Restore America Hero award honors public officials, private citizens and corporations whose “energy, vision and leadership have had a significant impact on the preservation of our historic and cultural legacy—the buildings, collections, documents and works of art that tell America’s story.”

While mayor, Ashe “took the cause of historic preservation to the people and spearheaded the effort to pass a city charter referendum requiring an annual report of the state of historic preservation in Knoxville. This was one of the first attempts in the nation to codify historic preservation in any city’s governing charter.”

And, “As president of the United States Conference of Mayors, Ashe used his platform to advocate on a national basis for some of the best practices for historic preservation to community leaders across America.”

The Miami Heat is the winner of the NBA finals, beating the Dallas Mavericks.

As a result of a friendly wager between Miami Mayor Manny Diaz and Dallas Mayor Laura Miller, Diaz has received these Dallas specialties: Cowboy boots, cowboy hat, BBQ from Sonny Bryan’s Smokehouse, Tex-Food items, Sweet Tea and Dr. Pepper and Pecan Pie.

Miller is not getting, sadly: a custom-made Guaybera Dress from Guayberas etc., Cuban Sandwiches from Versailles Restaurant, World Famous Joe’s Stonecraks, Cuban Coffee from Café Pilon and Café Bustelo, Florida Key Lime Pie, and tropical fruit drinks.