Associate Regional Patch Editor Tim Darnell recaps the local headlines  from 2010.

• Former Atlanta state senator Kasim Reed was sworn in as the city's 59^th mayor. His first priorities revolve around public safety.

• DeKalb County Schools Superintendent Dr. Crawford Lewis was indicted on charges of running a criminal enterprise in the school system. Later in the year, his interim replacement, Ramona Tyson, was given a 44-percent raise as the school district prepares to make drastic budget cuts.

• Four men claimed New Birth Missionary Baptist Church's  Eddie Long coerced them into sexual relationships. The DeKalb-based minister denied the allegations.

• Atlanta Public School System Superintendent Beverly Hall announced her resignation, after prosecutors investigated allegations of widespread test tampering.

• Wachovia became Wells Fargo & Co. With almost 200 branches in Atlanta, it became the metropolitan area's second largest bank.

• Jason Carter, the eldest grandson of former President Jimmy Carter, won a DeKalb County state Senate seat. He is the first in his family to win elected office since his grandfather took the White House more than three decades ago.

• Novelist Salman Rushdie's archive opened at Emory University. Rushdie, in the middle of a five-year stint as a distinguished lecturer, donated his personal papers to Emory's special collections library.

• Two Atlanta police officers involved in the 2006 fatal shooting of a 92-year-old woman were fired after an internal investigation found they lied and falsified documents. Another officer resigned and six more were disciplined.

• Atlanta-based UPS cut 1,800 management and administrative positions. About 1,100 employees were offered a voluntary separation package as part of the workforce reduction. 

• Atlanta topped Advocate magazine's list of the Gayest Cities in America, followed by Burlington, Vt.; Iowa City, Iowa; and Bloomington, Ind.

• At a price of $12 billion, its biggest deal in more than a century, Atlanta-based The Coca-Cola Co. took over the North American operations of what was its biggest bottler, Coca-Cola Enterprises.

• Atlanta-based AGL Resources announced a $2.4 billion acquisition of an Illinois utility, Nicor Inc. When completed, AGL will become the nation's largest gas-only utility holding company.

• Atlanta was cited as the second most affordable place to do business out of 22 major U.S. cities in a study by accounting firm KPMG.

• Atlanta was named the southeast's healthiest metropolis, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. The city finished 16^th overall on a national scale.