TASK DEFINITION: Given a document, find the main entity about whom the author is writing. Write the full name if mentioned in the text. Note that URLs in the text have been replaced with [Link].
PROBLEM: There are other factors at work besides warming. A global weather pattern called El Niño was absent this year  and that often means a stormier Atlantic Ocean. One reason is that high-altitude "shear winds" in the Atlantic that often nip the tops off budding hurricanes were absent  as well. 
Atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel at MIT  notes that there's also a rather mysterious cycle for Atlantic hurricanes. It seems to repeat about every decade. "We don't really understand it  [but] it's there "  he  says  and it also influences when and how often hurricanes arise. Sure enough  it was 12 years ago  in 2005  when the Atlantic saw such a similarly huge hurricane year.
 Emanuel  says scientists aren't clear whether hurricanes are becoming more common; reliable records for hurricanes go back only about 50 years in the Atlantic  so it's difficult to detect a long-term trend  and data for the Pacific are even scarcer. Theoretically   he  says  some aspects of warming could actually decrease the frequency of hurricanes by drying out parts of the atmosphere. But those that do arise are likely to be nastier. "Insofar as the storms are intense and produce a lot of rain "  he  says  "they're a window into our long-term future."
And it's a costly future   Emanuel  says. "We're just going to get more and more destruction "  he  predicts  "because we just encourage people to live and build in dangerous places" like low-lying coastlines — a fact independent of climate change.

SOLUTION: Kerry Emanuel

PROBLEM: Her opponent   City Council Member Mary Norwood   is a conservative-leaning independent who has supported both Republicans and Democrats in the past  and  she  has the support of what Republican Party infrastructure actually exists in Atlanta.  Norwood  is also white  while Lance-Bottoms is African-American. The last white candidate to win the mayorâs race in Atlanta was Sam Massell in 1969 . The state party has come out with heavy-handed attack ads deriding  Norwood  as a Republican  a signal to the cityâs voters of who they are backing. Their argument is laid out on a website called MaryTheRepublican.com   where they point out she has paid some Republican consultants as part of her campaign  that she refused to back Jon Ossof in his congressional race  and that she implied to a local Republican Party group that she is an independent because Republicans canât win in Atlanta.
But some of the polling shows that the race is a dead heat. A survey released late Friday night showed  Norwood  with a 6-point lead â and significant crossover support among African-American voters and Democrats.
Many political activists in Atlanta cite Reed as the reason some progressives are rallying to  Norwood . Reed has been the consummate neoliberal mayor  close to contractors and developers  and hostile to the cityâs activist movement on issues like affordable housing â while avoiding much of the progressive policies other big-city mayors are using to tackle income disparities. The New York Timesâs Thomas Friedman once held the Reed administration up as a model for its willingness to cut back the pensions of its public workers. As The Intercept noted in an article profiling Fortâs bid earlier this year  Atlanta has been ranked as the most unequal city in the country.
 Mary Norwood   candidate for mayor  gives volunteer Jerome Whitaker a hug for  his  support at  her  headquarters Tuesday  Nov. 7  2017  in Atlanta. Photo: Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution /AP
Tim Franzen  a longtime organizer who worked for Fortâs campaign  told The Intercept that while he plans to vote for the conservative Norwood  heâs not endorsing  her  or  her  politics. But he explained the dynamics that are leading many progressives to consider a  Norwood  vote.
âThereâs these narratives going around â one is that [this] is a Trump-Clinton situation. Itâs 100 percent not what we have here in Atlanta.  Mary Norwood  is a constituent-services politician.  She  always has been.  She âs not an ideological person â he explained.
Reedâs administration has also been the center of ethics scandals over the past few years over pay-to-play arrangements; his endorsement of and fundraising for Lance-Bottoms makes many question  her  own commitment to reform on the issue.
Some progressive Atlantans view Lance-Bottoms as a sort of third term for Reed and his ideas â a perception that is boosted by the generous financial backing airport contractors close to his administration have thrown her way. One Atlanta progressive news website that tracks votes on the city council ranks Lance-Bottoms as less progressive than  Norwood ; on issues like housing and homelessness  she has been a steady ally of Reed.
On the popular state political website GeorgiaPol.com  George Chidi â a former Bernie Sanders backer and Occupy Atlanta supporter â penned the post â A Black Voterâs Case for Mary Norwood .â  He  took the Democratic Party to task for taking the black vote in Atlanta for granted. âThe party fails to understand what Atlanta means to black people here  and everywhere in America  frankly â  he  wrote. âWe have a city that has the Gini coefficient of Caracas  nearly the widest gap in racial income in the country  and the lowest income mobility in America. In a recent symposium on racialized homelessness in Atlanta  a speaker noted that the average income of a black household in the city of Atlanta is under $30 000 a year. The average for a white household is over $80 000.â
In an interview with The Intercept  Chidi said he hopes  Norwood  would focus on corruption if she wins. âI hope she wonât be corrupt. I hope sheâll find those who are and see them punished â he said. âBy doing so  I hope sheâll maintain the cityâs international posture as a place to do business.â
And ultimately  the arguments that  Norwood  is a secret Republican fall flat in the face of her support base. Yes  she has courted Republicans as part of her campaign  but sheâs also courted Democrats and progressive independents â her list of endorsers proves that  as does the poll cited above that shows over 42 percent of Democrats in the city are backing her bid. Her stances on social issues in particular â supporting abortion rights and marriage equality â place her far out of step with Georgiaâs traditionally socially conservative Republican Party.
Franklin  the former mayor  alluded to Reedâs ethical issues and explained her rationale for endorsing a white candidate. âFor me  race was not the first issue â she said in her speech endorsing  Norwood . âCharacter  transparency  and integrity are the first issues for me.â (Norwood has come out for campaign donation limits on city vendors.)
Franzen shared Jonesâs torn feelings about  Norwood   whose politics are significantly more conservative than his. But in the end  he couldnât bring himself to vote for a continuation of the Reed regime.
âEveryday Atlantans are feeling the squeeze like they havenât felt in decades. So Iâm not passionate about  Mary Norwood   but I and other people who work on municipal issues have no other choice but to work against Keisha â Franzen reluctantly concluded.

SOLUTION: Mary Norwood

PROBLEM: âWhen you work at an agency you're working with different people every time. I felt like I didn't know anyone enough to do it â she said. âYou're supposed to be nice  the customer is always right â that's what you're measured on â she added  saying many agency workers fear they won't be asked back if they complain. âYou have to ignore people commenting on your appearance or asking you out  but often you don't feel like you can escape. You feel like you can't get away. It's about realising what a widespread problem it is: to be in fear in your workplace  for women to be unsafe.â A 20-year-old woman who recently worked serving beer and food at football events through the hospitality agency  Michael Wisher  said she has been made to feel uncomfortable by men who were âcheeky and flirtyâ towards her. âI think that they feel as if it is their right to flirt  as in they are buying something and it's part of the service â the woman  who asked to remain anonymous  told BuzzFeed News.
She said that while men appeared to think their behaviour was âa jokeâ  she felt it went beyond that  especially when they were drunk. âGenerally  the more drunk they get the more they try to flirt with the workers and the rowdier they get â she added. She said managers employed by  Michael Wisher  tended to intervene when event staff â who were mostly women â felt harassed.
Another woman  who asked BuzzFeed News to protect her identity  shared similar experiences of harassment when working at events for  Michael Wisher  as a student over 10 years ago.
âI did work at events at uni  like at the Ryder Cup  cricket venues  and large Indian weddings â she said. âThankfully there were no major incidents that I can vividly remember  but no doubt you got men being a bit overly flirty with you and cheeky and thinking they could get away with saying things to you â normally when they had had a few too many drinks and think they could get away with it.â  Michael Wisher  who founded the agency   said  he  had employed more than 100 000 staff and had never had a sexual harassment complaint.
 He  told BuzzFeed News  he  takes the issue incredibly seriously  but said the onus is on employees to report inappropriate behaviour.  Wisher  said  his  staff work with several different clients at locations across the country  and that any incidents of harassment could be taken up with both the company and the individual customer.
âThere always are people that can do that â it's about shouting up and saying that's happened â  he  said. âStaff can be moved around  customers can be spoken to and  if necessary  removed. If you've got a customer who is behaving inappropriately in any form you go and talk to them  point out how they need to conduct themselves â we don't have a problem with doing that.

SOLUTION:
Scott Michael Wisher