ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp vowed Wednesday to fulfill a pledge he made on the campaign trail by doubling down on a tax rebate the General Assembly passed last year. Kemp, who won reelection in November, told Georgia business and political leaders he will seek another $1 billion state income tax rebate. In addition to that, he will propose a second $1 billion rebate of property taxes Georgians pay to their local governments, which should result in a check of about $500 to each taxpayer.

ATLANTA (AP) — A South Korean solar panel maker will invest more than $2.5 billion to build factories in Georgia, hiring 2,500 new employees and making components usually manufactured outside the United States, the company announced Wednesday. Qcells, a unit of Hanwha Solutions, will build a new factory in Cartersville that will employ 2,000 people, with construction starting within weeks and production starting before the end of 2024.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's population has been growing more diverse for decades. Now its lawmakers are catching up. Georgia swore in 85 lawmakers on Monday who are of Hispanic, Black, Asian or Arab descent, bringing such lawmakers to 36% of the legislature once vacancies are filled in the 236-member General Assembly. That's an increase of eight nonwhite members from the previous two-year session. And the growth is prompting changes: For the first time, members have formed a Hispanic caucus and an Asian American Pacific Islander caucus, to go with longstanding groups for women and Black lawmakers.

ATLANTA (AP) — A former Atlanta city councilman has pleaded guilty to a federal charge of bank fraud. U.S. District Court records show Antonio Brown entered his plea before a judge Monday as part of a deal with prosecutors. He had been scheduled to stand trial next week, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Brown served two years on Atlanta’s city council before running an unsuccessful campaign for mayor in 2021. He campaigned under a cloud of federal charges filed in 2020. Prosecutors accused Brown of opening credit cards, taking out auto loans and spending thousands of dollars before falsely claiming his identity had been stolen.

ATLANTA (AP) — State gasoline and diesel taxes make their return in Georgia on Wednesday. The state will resume collecting a tax on gasoline of 29.1 cents per gallon and tax on diesel of 32.6 cents per gallon from wholesalers. That change is likely to trickle through rapidly to retailers who sell fuel to drivers. In March, with broad bipartisan support, Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed a law suspending the state’s gas tax. He signed seven separate extensions after that, with the state forgoing an estimated $1.7 billion million in revenue according to the governor's office.

ATLANTA (AP) — Jon Burns has made a reputation as everyone's friend during his 18 years in the Georgia House. Now he hopes that affability will serve him as the chamber's speaker, one of the most powerful positions in the state. “You get a lot more done in life, and certainly in government, if you’re amenable to other people’s positions, their viewpoints,” Burns told The Associated Press on Thursday. “And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a laugh while you’re working.”

ATLANTA – The 2023 session of the General Assembly beginning Monday is expected to get off to a slow start. With the Georgia Bulldogs vying for their second straight college football championship on Monday night and Thursday’s inauguration of Gov. Brian Kemp for a second term, there won’t be a rush to get down to legislative business on the session’s front end.  Since it’s not an election year, lawmakers also won’t be in a hurry on the back end to finish up under the Gold Dome and hit the campaign trail.

DANVILLE, Va. (AP) — A diesel fuel leak in Virginia shut down part of the Colonial Pipeline, the nation’s largest fuel pipeline, which supplies roughly half the fuel consumed on the East Coast, but it is expected to restart Saturday, the company said. The spill was discovered Tuesday. And while this particular line is shut down, the rest of the system is operating normally, spokesperson David Conti said in an email.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's giant hill of money looms over state lawmakers as the 2023 session begins next Monday. State government ended the 2022 budget year in June with $6.6 billion in surplus cash, even after it filled its savings account to the legal limit. Gov. Brian Kemp has announced plans to spend more than $3 billion of the amount through a combination of one-time tax givebacks, with fellow Republican legislative leaders signaling support. But even that bonanza would leave about $3 billion that could be spent, saved or given away. And barring a notable economic disaster, the state is likely to run a surplus again in the current budget year.

ATLANTA – The Statesboro area has landed a second automotive parts manufacturer in recent months. Ecoplastic Corp. will build a new automotive parts plant in Bulloch County, a $205 million investment that will create 456 jobs, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. The plant will supply the huge Hyundai electric vehicle manufacturing facility being built near Savannah.

ATLANTA – Georgia Power Chairman, President and CEO Chris Womack will take over leadership of the utility’s parent, Southern Co., later this year, Atlanta-based Southern announced Thursday. Womack, 64, will succeed Tom Fanning, Southern’s current chairman, president, and CEO, at the end of March following Southern’s annual stockholders meeting. Fanning, 65, will become executive chairman of Southern’s Board of Directors.

ATLANTA, Ga. -- Traffic crashes across Georgia during the New Year’s Day holiday travel period resulted in 18 deaths resulting from 16 crashes. This year’s 78-hour holiday travel period began Friday, December 30, at 6:00 p.m., and ended Monday, January 2, at 11:59 p.m. Statewide, Georgia State Patrol Troopers investigated nine fatal crashes resulting in nine fatalities. Local agencies reporting traffic deaths during the 2022 New Year’s holiday travel period include: Clayton County Police, Dekalb County Police Department (4), Glynn County Police Department, Gwinnett County Police (2), Hampton Police Department, and Monroe County Sheriff’s Office.

ATLANTA – Nearly 300 state employees erroneously received unemployment benefits totaling $6.7 million and averaging $23,700 per employee during the last two pandemic years, the Georgia Office of the Inspector General reported Wednesday. In a letter to David Dove, Gov. Brian Kemp’s executive counsel, Inspector General Mike McAfee wrote that data obtained from the U.S. Department of Labor and the State Accounting Office tentatively identified more than 280 full-time state employees who erroneously received unemployment insurance payments in 2020 and 2021.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s sales tax exemption on inputs used in manufacturing is a loser in the strict sense of its net impact on state and local tax revenues, according to a new audit. However, the tax break more than pays for itself in terms of investment and jobs created in the state’s manufacturing businesses, the Center for Business Analytics and Economic Research at Georgia Southern University concluded in a report commissioned by the Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts.

Automaker Stellantis is teaming with Archer Aviation to create an electric aircraft. Stellantis, created in 2021 through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA Peugeot, will provide manufacturing technology and expertise, personnel and capital to the joint project. The plane, named Midnight, will be able to carry a pilot and four passengers.

ATLANTA, Ga. – Georgia internet providers will receive more than $234 million in grants to expand broadband internet connectivity in 28 counties. Gov. Brian Kemp announced the preliminary grants on Wednesday as part of the Capitol Projects Fund Grant Program. The awards, combined with capital matches from the recipients, will result in almost $455 million invested in internet infrastructure to improve access in more than 76,000 locations. 

ATLANTA (AP) — The widow of former Georgia House Speaker David Ralston and a Blue Ridge banker will face off in a Jan. 31 runoff after none of five Republicans won a majority in a special election Tuesday to fill Ralston's seat in House District 7. Sheree Ralston of Blue Ridge, the executive director of the Fannin County Development Authority and Ralston’s widow, won about 45% of the vote, falling short of a required majority, according to unofficial totals. Johnny Chastain, a Blue Ridge banker and Fannin County Development Authority member, won about 39% of the vote.

ATLANTA – Renewal by Andersen, the full-service window replacement division of Anderson Corp., will build a manufacturing plant in Henry County, investing more $420 million and creating 900 jobs, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday. Minnesota-based Andersen Corp. and its subsidiaries operate more than 20 manufacturing and distribution facilities in North America serving customers across the new residential, light commercial, home improvement, and remodeling sectors of the industry.

Georgia River Network wants Georgians to visit the state’s rivers, and in 2023 the organization is offering up more than $8000 in prizes and more than 220 miles of canoe/kayak/paddleboard adventures to entice them to explore the state’s expanding water trail system. The prizes are part of the organization’s Paddle-A-Thon competition in which participants compete against one another in more than a dozen categories, including most miles paddled, most trash removed, and most kayak fishing trips.

ATLANTA – Fifty years after the Cumberland Island National Seashore was established, the National Park Service is pushing a plan that essentially would double daily visitation to the remote barrier island. The park service is promoting its Visitor Use Management Plan (VUMP) as a way to provide access to the island’s unique natural beauty to a wider range of visitors, but preservationists say the plan would ruin what makes Cumberland special.

DECATUR, Ga. (AP) — A man was charged with murder Saturday after shooting a tire shop employee in Georgia moving his car because he thought the worker was a thief, police said. The man brought his car in for service at the Tires Plus in Decatur on Saturday afternoon when he saw his car being driven through the parking lot, the DeKalb County Police Department told media outlets. Thinking his car was being stolen, Quadarius McDowell fired several shots, killing the 24-year-old employee behind the wheel who was moving the vehicle to another place, police said.

WINDER, Ga. (AP) — A Republican arrested after winning his race for a seat in the Georgia House has decided to step aside instead of facing a possible suspension as soon as he was sworn into office later this month.

ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities in Atlanta announced Friday they're offering a $30,000 reward in their hunt for the killer of a sheriff's deputy found shot inside his wrecked car. The Fulton County Sheriff's Office said in statement the cash would be awarded for information leading to an arrest in the slaying of 24-year-old James Thomas. Police found Thomas' damaged car in the middle of an Atlanta road after a passerby called 911 at about 4:30 a.m. Thursday. Officers found Thomas in the driver's seat, dead from a single gunshot.

ATLANTA, Ga. – Traffic crashes across Georgia during the Christmas holiday travel period resulted in 13 traffic deaths resulting from 10 fatal crashes. This year’s 78-hour holiday travel period began Friday, December 23, at 6:00 p.m., and ended Monday, December 26, at 11:59 p.m. Statewide, Georgia State Patrol Troopers investigated five fatal crashes causing seven fatalities. Local agencies reporting traffic deaths during the 2022 Christmas holiday travel period include the Atlanta Police Department, Bibb County Sheriff’s Office, DeKalb County Police Department, and Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office.

ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities found an off-duty sheriff’s deputy fatally shot early Thursday inside a wrecked car in the middle of an Atlanta road. A passerby called 911 after spotting the car at about 4:30 a.m., Atlanta police Maj. Peter Malecki told reporters. He said police found the deputy in the driver's seat, dead from a single gunshot.