Our first guest on this edition of “Two Way Street” is Jim Wagner. He’s just stepped down as president of Emory University, retiring after 13 years in that position. During his tenure at Emory, Wagner presided over a dramatic expansion of the school’s work in scientific research and public health, recruited prestigious world figures like Salman Rushdie and the Dalai Lama to join the Emory faculty and oversaw the largest increase in fundraising in the school’s history.

Governor Nathan Deal continues to defend his school takeover plan despite recent opposition from districts around the state. At a meeting of educators in Atlanta on Thursday, Deal said local districts aren’t responsive enough to the parents of children in poorly performing schools.

Harris Hines will be the new Chief Justice of the Georgia Supreme Court. The Cobb County native is expected to take up the mantle as Chief Justice this January, according a press release from the court. He succeeds retiring Justice Hugh Thompson. Hines will preside over Georgia’s judicial branch for one 4-year term. The new Chief Justice will act as the main spokesperson for the state court and entire judiciary. He will also chair the Georgia Judicial Council, the state judicial branch’s 26-member policy-making body. Hines spent 12 years serving the Cobb Judicial Circuit. He was appointed to the state Supreme Court in 1995 by Gov. Zell Miller. He has served as Chairman of the Georgia Supreme Court’s Committee on Justice for Children for 16 years. He is a graduate of Emory University’s Law School. Hines will be sworn in on Friday, January 17, 2017.

During my tenure as editor in chief of Chicagoland Monthly, a regional magazine I ran in the late 1970s, we decided to do a cover story on how the Arab oil embargo was affecting the daily lives of people in metropolitan Chicago. Of all the covers we created for the magazine, I’m proudest of the one that hangs in my office at GPB. There’s Uncle Sam, dying for gasoline and committing suicide by self-immolation.