FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — Visiting with rank-and-file troops Tuesday in Georgia, the U.S. Army's top general had a young soldier dial up his father for a cellphone conversation in which he praised the man's son for enlisting. “You can be anything you want in the Army,” Army Chief of Staff James McConville told 25-year-old Spc. Benjamin Soares and his dad on the other end of the phone. “You can be all you can be.”

ATLANTA (AP) — A nuclear power plant in Georgia has begun splitting atoms in one of its two new reactors, Georgia Power said Monday, a key step toward reaching commercial operation at the first new nuclear reactors built from scratch in decades in the United States. The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. said operators reached self-sustaining nuclear fission inside the reactor at Plant Vogtle, southeast of Augusta. That makes the intense heat that will be used to produce steam and spin turbines to generate electricity.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia lawmakers have reached a final agreement on amendments to this year's state budget, setting the stage for final House and Senate votes on the spending plan Monday. House Bill 18 raises spending by $2.4 billion after Republican Gov. Brian Kemp raised projected revenue. It includes $950 million for property tax rebates to homeowners and would divert $1.1 billion in state revenue to the Department of Transportation to make up for fuel tax revenue that the state didn’t collect while gas and diesel taxes were suspended.

ATLANTA – Georgia lawmakers have rejected three bills that would have  legalized  sports betting and pari-mutuel wagering on horse races in the Bible Belt state. The latest loss for pro-gambling forces came Monday when they were unable to convince enough Senate lawmakers to approve a proposed constitutional amendment. The proposal fell short of the two-thirds supermajority it needed to pass.

ATLANTA (AP) — More than 20 people from around the country faced domestic terrorism charges Monday after dozens in black masks attacked the site of a police training center under construction in a wooded area outside Atlanta where one protester was killed in January. The area has become the flashpoint of ongoing conflict between authorities and left-leaning protesters.

A pediatric cardiologist from Georgia and a Canadian woman won the men's and women's contests at Key West's annual Conch Shell Blowing Contest, using different techniques to impress Saturday's judges. Brian Cardis of Macon, Georgia, played the Jimmy Buffett song “Fins” on a a pink-lined conch shell with holes so it can be played like a flute, while Carol Whiteley of Ontario, Canada, blew a long, loud blast with her shell to best other competitors.

DOUGLASVILLE, Ga. (AP) — Two people were killed and six others were injured at a shooting in a suburban Atlanta home Saturday night where over 100 teenagers had gathered for a party. Investigators have been piecing together what transpired at the Douglasville home, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement posted to social media Sunday morning. No suspects were apprehended as of Sunday morning, and it is unclear whether more than one person carried out the shooting.

ATLANTA — One of a series of legislative proposals that would have legalized sports gambling and opened the door to pari-mutuel betting on horse racing in Georgia fell far short of the votes it needed to move forward in the Senate on Thursday. The 37-19 vote may signal that two other pro-gambling bills still pending will face long odds.

ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp and legislative leaders announced a plan Thursday to review all of Georgia’s tax credits later this year. The goal is to make sure the various tax credits on the books in Georgia aimed at supporting economic development and job creation are giving taxpayers a good return on that investment.

ATLANTA – The higher fuel costs Georgians have been paying at the gas pumps soon could be reflected in their electric bills. Georgia Power filed a request with the state Public Service Commission (PSC) Tuesday to recover $2.1 billion in additional fuel costs the Atlanta-based utility has incurred during the last two years and that are projected to occur during the next two years. If approved, the proposal would add $17 to $23 to the monthly bill of the average Georgia Power customer who uses 1,000 kilowatt-hours of power each month.

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — When Jimmy Carter stepped onto the national stage, he brought along those closest to him, introducing Americans to a colorful Georgia family that helped shape the 39th president’s public life and now, generations later, is rallying around him for the private final chapter of his 98 years.

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia Senate committee has approved two bills that could allow the Buckhead neighborhood to secede from the city of Atlanta, the first time that an issue freighted with fears about crime and racial and economic division has moved forward in the General Assembly.

ATLANTA – A new bill with bipartisan support would, if passed, take the first step toward creating “prosperity planning districts” around Georgia’s 10 historically Black colleges and universities.  

ATLANTA – Republicans in the General Assembly are making a renewed push for “mandatory minimum” sentences this year in the hopes of reducing crimes in Georgia.   Such laws require judges to impose minimum sentences and often prohibit probation or other commutation of criminal sentences in an effort to deter criminal activity.  

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — Police have arrested two people — one just 15 years old — in connection with a shooting in a Georgia city last week near the Alabama state line that left nine children injured. Both were arrested Friday in the Feb. 17 shooting at a gas station in Columbus in which seven teenagers and two younger children suffered gunshot wounds that were not considered life-threatening.

ATLANTA – Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta has created a $200 million fund and formed a partnership with Mercer University School of Medicine to bolster rural healthcare for the youngest Georgians.  The new partnership will fund 10 full scholarships for medical students who study at Mercer and agree to practice pediatric medicine in rural Georgia for four years after completing their training.  

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped charges of assault, obstruction and other counts against a Georgia jail detainee after video from security cameras showed him being beaten by sheriff's deputies who rushed into his cell. The decision to dismiss charges against 41-year-old Jarrett Hobbs came several months after an investigation following the video's release in November led to the arrest of three Camden County deputies on battery charges in the jail beating.

ATLANTA – The state has awarded a $3 million grant to Chatham County to help acquire and preserve Green Island, Georgia Rep. Jesse Petrea, R-Savannah, announced Wednesday. Petrea has been working for the last two years with the county, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Savannah lawyer and philanthropist J. Curtis Lewis III. The Lewis family owns the 450-acre island in the southern end of Chatham County.

LAGRANGE, Ga. (AP) — Human bones found inside a submerged car near the Georgia-Alabama state line in 2021 have been matched to a college student who had been missing for 47 years, according to a Georgia sheriff. Kyle Clinkscales, 22, of LaGrange, vanished in January 1976 after leaving the Georgia club where he worked as a bartender to return to school at Auburn University in neighboring Alabama.

RINCON, Ga. (AP) — A company that stamps metal auto parts will invest $300 million to build a 740-employee plant near Savannah, becoming the fifth Hyundai Motor Group supplier to locate in the region. Sewon Precision Industry Co. said Tuesday that it would locate its plant in Rincon, a Savannah suburb in Georgia's Effingham County. Sewon already has a stamping plant in LaGrange, near the Kia plant in West Point and the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama. The South Korean company expects to have 1,600 employees between the two plants once the Rincon factory is complete.

ATLANTA – Moving up Georgia’s presidential primaries to put the Peach State fourth in the primary calendar would reap huge economic benefits, according to a new study. Early Democratic and Republican presidential primaries next year could generate nearly $220 million in economic impact and create more than 2,200 jobs, Emory University finance professor Thomas More Smith concluded in a study released last week.

ATLANTA – The state Senate Thursday approved a wide-ranging bill aimed at stemming the tide of gang-related crime in Georgia.   Sponsored by Sen. John Albers, R-Roswell, the 10-page bill makes a number of changes to Georgia’s criminal law to address gang violence. 

ATLANTA (AP) — Two more pieces of Gov. Brian Kemp's tax cut agenda are advancing in the state House. The House Ways and Means Committee voted Thursday to pass bills that would give income tax filers another $1 billion in tax refunds and to ratify the Republican governor's decision to waive tax collection on gasoline and diesel fuel for months.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power Co. has again delayed the projected startup for two new units at its Vogtle nuclear power plant near Augusta, saying its share of the costs will rise by an additional $200 million. Southern Co., the utility's Atlanta-based parent, announced the delays and higher costs on Thursday as it announced its yearly corporate earnings for 2022.

ATLANTA – The state Senate unanimously approved a bill Wednesday that would expand Georgia’s law governing telemarketing calls.  The bill would allow Georgians to hold companies liable for telemarketing calls made by third-party contractors as well as pursue class-action lawsuits against telemarketers.