SOUTH EDMESTON, NY -- Six months after Upstate New York-based Greek yogurt maker Chobani announced plans to give its employees a stake in the company, it announced today it will offer its workers fully paid parental leave. The leave provides full pay for six weeks, and covers all full-time hourly and salaried employees. It can be used by both mothers and fathers for "birth, adoption or placement of a foster child into the home," the company said. Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya told employees at Chobani's Chenago County manufacturing plant today he wants the new leave policy to be a model for the country. In a letter distributed to workers, he said becoming a father himself "started a lot of conversations with folks about how we can better support new parents here at Chobani."

Next July, Bruce Deel will celebrate 20 years since he came to Atlanta to assist with the closing of a church. Located in one of Atlanta’s most impoverished and crime-filled neighborhoods, where nearly 40 percent of the residents live below the federal poverty level, the City of Refuge today has transformed the lives of 20,000 people. The sprawling campus encompasses 200,000-square-foot. warehouse in the heart of the troubled 30314 neighborhood on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard in northwest Atlanta, which was formerly Simpson Road.

Health tech startup iBeat launched the pre-ordering phase of its heart-monitoring watch on Indiegogo, giving the company time to build out a commercial market and establish the device, iBeat Life Monitor, as a tool for preventing sudden death from cardiac arrest or stroke.  Backed by Dr. Mehmet Oz, host of the “Dr. Oz Show,” and founded by former Practice Fusion CEO Ryan Howard, the iBeat Life Monitor aims to build upon previous technologies like Life Alert to provide a 24/7 dispatch team in the event of a major cardiac event. The watch continuously monitors heart rate and oxygen uptake, and if the wearer’s metrics go outside a healthy parameter, it contacts the wearer, asking if they are ok. If they have the capacity to respond “no” by pushing a button, or if the wearer cannot respond at all, the dispatch team then notifies emergency responders as well as family and friends.