ATLANTA – A new nonprofit has launched to help Georgians contribute to a state tax credit program aimed at helping young adults aging out of the foster care system. Fostering Success Act Inc., named after legislation the General Assembly passed last year, will help taxpayers submit applications to the Georgia Department of Revenue to qualify for the program.

Georgia's Big Peanut is back. The roadside landmark along Interstate 75 in south Georgia was rededicated Thursday, nearly five years after an earlier version was felled by the winds of Hurricane Michael. This time, the giant goober is made of sheet metal, not fiberglass.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's transportation commissioner will get another $100,000 boost in pay. The State Transportation Board says it will boost Commissioner Russell McMurry's yearly pay to $550,000, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports, up from the current $450,000. Board Chairman Robert Brown said McMurry deserves the 22% salary increase, scheduled to begin in September, because of his leadership of the Georgia Department of Transportation since he became commissioner in 2015.

EAST POINT, Ga. (AP) — An Atlanta suburb is trying to recover nearly $800,000 that it lost in an email scam. WAGA-TV reports the city of East Point lost the money in 2021 after someone hacked the city's email system and sent four fake invoices from city email addresses asking for money to be wired to a fake company. The losses became public knowledge after they were discussed in an audit report presented at a Thursday meeting

ATLANTA – The Georgia Department of Transportation (DOT) is about to launch an experiment with a different form of transportation tax designed to capture revenue from drivers of electric vehicles. The agency is looking for 150 volunteers to take part in a federally funded pilot project that will replace gasoline and other motor fuel taxes with a tax based on the number of miles driven.

JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) — Six deputies of a north-central Georgia sheriff's office will not be indicted in the death of a mentally ill inmate who had been in jail overnight on a trespassing charge. The Clayton County Sheriff's Office deputies faced charges of involuntary manslaughter, reckless conduct and violating their oaths of office following the November death of Terry Lee Thurmond III, 38, of Hapeville, Georgia. His death was ruled a homicide by the county medical examiner’s office.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate was unchanged last month at 3.2%, while the number of jobs rose to an all-time high, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. Unemployment in the Peach State was four-tenths of a point lower than the national jobless rate of 3.6%. The number of jobs increased by 4,400 in June to a record 4.9 million.

ATLANTA (AP) — More than 700 bridges across Georgia can't handle the increased weight limits approved earlier this year by lawmakers, officials say. Deputy Chief Engineer Andrew Heath told the State Transportation Board on Wednesday that the Georgia Department of Transportation and local governments will post signs with weight restrictions on the additional bridges by Sept. 2, reported The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

WHITE, Ga. (AP) — A former police chief, police officer and municipal clerk for a small northwest Georgia city have each been acquitted of numerous charges, including racketeering. The city of White's former Police Chief David King, his son-in-law, Officer Black Scheff, and King's wife, Jane Richards — who served as municipal clerk and city manager — were acquitted in separate trials on charges that included conspiring to profit illegally through their positions from August 2009 to December 2017.

ATLANTA – A new round of purging from Georgia’s voter list ahead of next year’s elections is poised to remove 191,473 voters previously placed into “inactive” status from the rolls. If an inactive voter’s county voter registration office receives no response to a mailed notice within 30 days, that voter will be taken off the list. Inactive voters who respond by updating their registration information will remain on the rol

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's standardized tests could count for a lower share of high school course grades after a 9-3 vote on Wednesday by the state Board of Education. Until now, districts had to count end-of-course exams in algebra, American literature and composition, biology and U.S. History for at least 20% of a public school student's grade in those courses. Now districts may choose to lower that share to a minimum of 10%.

ATLANTA (AP) — A former executive for a longtime city of Atlanta vendor was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for paying bribes in exchange for millions of dollars in city contracts and for paying bribes to an official in a neighboring county in an attempt to get business there.

ATLANTA – Japanese probiotic beverages maker Yakult will build its second U.S. plant in Bartow County, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday. The facility represents an estimated investment of $305 million and will create more than 90 new jobs. Yakult U.S.A., which was formed in 1990, built its first U.S. plant in California.

ATLANTA – A federal court has dismissed the state of Georgia’s bid to dismiss a lawsuit challenging state House and Senate district lines the Republican-controlled General Assembly drew two years ago based on the 2020 census. The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU’s Georgia chapter are arguing the maps deny Black voters an equal opportunity to participate in the political process. U.S. District Judge Steve Jones has set a Sept. 5 hearing date in the case.

ATLANTA (AP) — Chris Hosey will lead the Georgia Bureau of Investigation beginning Aug. 1 after he was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp. Hosey's appointment was approved Saturday by the state Board of Public Safety. He is taking over for Mike Register, who's stepping down after less than a year on the job. Register is Cobb County's next public safety director.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Republican former state lawmaker is coming back to Georgia's capitol as House Speaker Jon Burns' chief of staff. Burns, a Republican from Newington, announced Monday that he was hiring Terry England to replace Spiro Amburn, who is leaving for a private job.

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia man has been arrested in connection with the kidnapping and killing of his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, a woman he also is accused of having kidnapped a year earlier. Police identified the suspect in the Sunday night abduction and shooting as Cameron Ja’Michael Hopkins, 20, of Albany.

ALTO, Ga. (AP) — Five people are dead after a wreck on a busy northeast Georgia highway. State troopers say Avonlea Holtzclaw of Dahlonega was trying to cross U.S. 23 in a Ford Explorer Sunday afternoon when a driver going northbound hit her. The wreck happened near Alto in Habersham County.

HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Officers on Sunday shot and killed a man wanted in four weekend killings near Atlanta during an exchange of gunfire, with a sheriff's deputy and two police officers wounded while trying to take the suspect into custody, authorities said.

HAMPTON, Ga. (AP) — Authorities in Georgia hunted Saturday for a man who remained at large hours after he was suspected of gunning down three men and a woman in a suburban neighborhood south of Atlanta.

ATLANTA (AP) — The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into jail conditions in Georgia's most populous county, with officials citing violence, filthy conditions and the death last year of a man whose body was found covered in insects.

ATLANTA (AP) — The ex-wife of R&B singer Usher is calling to drain Georgia's largest lake, where her son was fatally injured 11 years ago. Fashion designer Tameka Foster has collected more than 2,500 signatures for her online petition imploring officials to “drain, clean, and restore” Lake Sidney Lanier, to allow for safety improvements and the removal of hazardous debris and other obstructions.

ATLANTA (AP) — Rex, an eager and energetic German shepherd, was languishing in a Georgia animal shelter last year when a friend spotted the dog and called Marty Kemp, the wife of Gov. Brian Kemp and an avid animal lover. Thursday, Marty Kemp was on hand at the governor's mansion as 3-year-old Rex and 11 other dogs got their badges as they joined the Georgia State Patrol and Georgia Capitol Police as K-9 officers.

COVINGTON, Ga. (AP) — A sheriff's deputy in suburban Atlanta has been arrested after being accused of raping a woman while on duty, Georgia officials say. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced Thursday that George Rahming, 38, was charged with rape, sexual assault and violating his oath of office.

GAINESVILLE, Ga. (AP) — A rabid beaver bit a young girl while she was swimming in a northeast Georgia lake, local news outlets reported. Kevin Beucker, field supervisor for Hall County Animal Control, told WDUN-AM that the beaver bit the girl on Saturday while she was swimming off private property in the northern end of Lake Lanier near Gainesville.