Business

ATLANTA -- The Judicial Council of Georgia Domestic Violence Committee awarded a grant on Friday that will go towards the work of nine nonprofit organizations in and near Atlanta. 

The grant of almost $1.6 million will help bring legal services to around 4,500 people with low income around Georgia who have suffered from domestic violence and are working to bounce back.  A spokeswoman for the Judicial Council reported that the funds are given each year to develop domestic violence training and legal services for victims. 

According to the spokeswoman, not included are divorces, deportations and other matters which are not related with the victim's safety, along with economic security. 

ATLANTA - Metro Atlanta Chamber president Sam Williams announced his retirement on Tuesday.  According to a release, he told the Chamber's executive committee he will retire at the end of 2013 or when a replacement is hired. 

Williams has served as the Chamber's president since December 1996, and had been at the forefront of a number of initiatives, including helping the city meet the standards of the Clean Water Act, to helping to attract more high tech, logistics and bioscience firms to Metro Atlanta. 

At 68, Williams has served three years beyond the commitment he made in 1996 to serve until age 65.  At the encouragement of the Chamber's executive committee, Williams has agreed to extend his contract until the end of the year, or until a replacement can be hired in 2014. 

But the new franchise is a sure sign the company is still looking to establish a stronger foothold in that part of California. 

The chain generated $4.6 billion in sales last year, up about 12 percent from $4.1 billion in 2011.  It also opened 96 restaurants in 2012, bringing its count at the end of the year to 1,690 locations in 39 states and Washington, D.C.

ATLANTA -- Those fees passengers dole out to check a bag or change a flight proved a windfall for U.S. carriers last year, with airlines reaping a record amount from those extra charges. 

U.S. airlines earned $3.5 billion in fees for checked luggage and another $2.6 billion in fees charged for changing a reservation, according to a release of preliminary data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics. 

Delta was in the top spot, bringing in $865.9 million in baggage fees, and another $778.4 million in ticket-change fees. 

The airport Chick-fil-A used to be on Concourse A. That location closed last year to move to Concourse C.

"We are thrilled to once again partner with (concessionaire) HMSHost to bring Chick-fil-A to the passengers and staff at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport," Chick-fil-A president and COO Dan Cathy said in a statement. " We look forward to serving travelers and employees at our new Concourse C restaurant." 

ATLANTA (USA Today) -- Chick-fil-A is trying - with some success - to turn the page. 

Make that, pages. 

The fast-food chain's image took a social-media pounding last year after its president said that Chick-fil-A supported the biblical definition of the family - interpreted by many gays and gay marriage supporters as a slap in the face. 

Now, nearly a year later, the Atlanta chain - which surpassed KFC last year to become the nation's largest domestic fast-food chicken chain, with sales of $4.6 billion - on Tuesday will announce detailed plans to try to broaden its appeal to the crucial Millennial market, whose business it will need in order to continue broadening its national and, ultimately, international growth plans. 

ATLANTA -- Coffee retailer Caribou Coffee said Monday they were closing four locations in metro Atlanta on April 14 as part of a larger set of store closings. 

The company said it will close 80 locations nationally, and convert another 88 locations to Peet's Coffee locations, including the company's remaining nine stores in metro Atlanta. 

The local stores that will be closing will be the locations on North Druid Hills Road, the Norcross store on Peachtree Parkway, and both Marietta locations -- on Powers Ferry Road and on Johnson Ferry Road. 

The chain, America's second largest coffee chain behind Starbucks, was acquired in December 2012 by Joh.  A. Benckiser, the German company which also recently acquired the West Coast coffee chain Peet's.