ATLANTA (AP) — It’s getting more complicated to tell how Georgia public schools are faring. The state Department of Education on Thursday released a full spectrum of school accountability numbers for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

ATLANTA – The release of fatal liquid nitrogen at a poultry processing plant in Gainesville nearly three years ago was “completely preventable,” according to a newly released federal report. Six workers died at the Foundation Food Group plant in January 2021 when a liquid nitrogen control system in a freezer room failed due to a bent tube that allowed the room to be filled with a deadly cloud, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board found.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia and Alabama are proposing a settlement to a long-running dispute over water flows in the Chattahoochee River, although the deal won't address objections from groups in Florida over how much water ultimately flows into the environmentally sensitive Apalachicola River. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, both Republicans, said Tuesday that they will ask the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to approve a plan that would guarantee minimum water flows at Columbus, Georgia and in southeast Alabama.

Jaillene Hunter has replaced Robin Rhodes as executive director of Georgia Press Association. Hunter assumed the role last week. Rhodes will continue working through a transition period and will continue to represent GPA at the state legislature on issues important to the newspaper industry.

ATLANTA – The economic growth Georgia experienced this year will slow down in 2024 but not enough to cause a recession, the dean of the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia said Monday. “Georgia is well positioned to weather an economic slowdown, and our economy will outperform the U.S. economy,” Ben Ayers told a crowded ballroom at the Georgia Aquarium in the kickoff of UGA’s annual Georgia Economic Outlook series. “Our economy will not bust.”

ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has renewed his call for a constitutional amendment prohibiting non-U.S. citizens from voting in elections in Georgia. Raffensperger said a recent surge in illegal immigrants crossing the nation’s southern border makes stopping non-citizens from voting more important than ever.

ATLANTA – The Biden administration is stepping up federal funding of three planned intercity passenger rail projects in Georgia. The Federal Rail Administration has awarded $1.5 million in grants to explore linking Atlanta with Savannah; Charlotte, N.C.; and Chattanooga, Tenn. The grants are part of $8.2 billion in new funding for passenger rail projects announced Thursday.

ATLANTA – State tax collections rose slightly last month compared to November of last year, the Georgia Department of Revenue reported Friday. The state brought in $2.32 billion in November, up 1.5% over the same month a year ago.

ATLANTA (AP) — A shooting in Atlanta killed three people and left one victim wounded Saturday evening, police said. The Atlanta Police Department said officers responded to an address on Peachtree Road NE in the city’s Buckhead district Saturday.

ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta police have arrested a woman who's accused of trying to burn down the birth home of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta. Officers arrested the 26-year-old woman around 5:45 p.m. Thursday after responding to a report of vandalism in process at the two-story home in the historic Auburn Avenue Historic District, according to a police statement.

ATLANTA – The Georgia House gave final passage to a new congressional map for the state Thursday, the final act in a weeklong special legislative session called after a federal judge declared the current map violates the Voting Rights Act. The Republican-controlled House approved the map 98-71, voting along party lines, sending the map to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature.

CHICAGO (AP) — The U.S. Soccer Federation's new training center will be built in Fayetteville, Georgia, a suburb of Atlanta about a 30-mile drive from downtown Atlanta. The USSF announced the specific site adjacent to Trilith Studios on Thursday after saying on Sept. 15 it intended to construct a complex in the Atlanta area. Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta United owner Arthur Blank is contributing $50 million for the project. The complex will be more than 200 acres.

ATLANTA – The General Assembly’s Republican majorities gave final passage to new legislative district maps Tuesday over objections from minority Democrats that the state House and Senate maps violate the Voting Rights Act. Voting along party lines, the Georgia House of Representatives adopted a new state Senate map senators had passed late last week.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Air Force Special Operations Command said Tuesday it has identified the eight service members lost when their Osprey crashed off the coast of Japan last week and was now focused on recovering all of their bodies and the aircraft debris. The CV-22B Osprey crashed on Nov. 29 during a training mission.

ATLANTA (AP) — Two of three people charged with arson in the burning of the Wendy's restaurant in Atlanta where a police officer fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in June 2020 have pleaded guilty after reaching deals with prosecutors. Chisom Kingston, Natalie White and John Wade were arrested on arson charges within weeks of the fire, which came in the midst of weeks of upheaval and protest across the country in the wake of George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Power Co. is urging the state's utility regulators to approve a deal to pay for the company's new nuclear reactors as a few holdout opponents keep fighting to try to get the Public Service Commission to keep the utility from collecting any cost overruns for the two reactors at Plant Vogtle.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's Republican governor and legislative leaders want to speed up an already-planned cut in the state income tax rate. Gov. Brian Kemp, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and House Speaker Jon Burns said Monday that they support a plan to create a flat income tax rate of 5.39% starting Jan. 1. “We're keeping government streamlined and we're giving taxpayers back their hard-earned money,” Kemp said.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Republicans on Thursday pushed forward new legislative maps that would preserve their majorities in the state House and Senate, while still not revealing how they want to redraw Georgia’s 14 congressional districts.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — County commissioners in Georgia are asking a judge to throw out a lawsuit by Black residents descended from slaves who fear new zoning changes will force them to sell their island homes in one of the South's last surviving Gullah-Geechee communities. Residents and landowners of the tiny Hogg Hummock community sued in October after McIntosh County commissioners voted to weaken zoning restrictions that for decades helped protect the enclave of modest homes along dirt roads on largely unspoiled Sapelo Island.

ATLANTA — Gov. Brian Kemp’s chief of staff is resigning to become senior vice president over external affairs for Georgia Power, effective Jan. 15. Kilpatrick will lead the company’s strategy and engagement in economic development, legislative and regulatory affairs, region external affairs and corporate communication. 

ATLANTA – A combination of legislation and spending increases are needed to improve Georgia’s foster care system, according to a report a legislative study committee adopted Monday. The state Senate Study Committee on Foster Care and Adoption unanimously recommended legislation to shorten the time it takes children entering the foster care system to reach a permanent status – either reunification with parents or adoption – and to provide free photo IDs to foster kids.

ATLANTA (AP) — It's a fight over land in one of rural Georgia's poorest areas, but it could have implications for property law across the state and nation. A hearing is scheduled to begin Monday to help determine whether a railroad can legally condemn property to build a rail line 4.5 miles long that would serve a rock quarry and possibly other industries.

PLAINS, Ga. (AP) — Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter could not remember their first meeting. She was a newborn. He wasn't long out of diapers himself, a would-be U.S. president peering down at the future first lady his mother had delivered a few days earlier. What flourished in the near-century to follow was a partnership that won the Georgia governor’s office, the White House and then propelled the Carters through four decades as global humanitarians.

ATLANTA (AP) — Multiple dogs living at animal shelters in a county just south of Atlanta could be euthanized due to overcrowding if they aren't adopted before Nov. 30, a Georgia animal control group said.

ATLANTA – Gov. Brian Kemp is assigning Georgia National Guard troops and other state resources to help with the “logistical challenges” associated with ceremonies and services to honor the late former First Lady Rosalynn Carter. Kemp issued an executive order Tuesday activating the State Operations Center to coordinate the state assets that will assist next week in the final farewells and interment of Mrs. Carter, who died Sunday at her home in Plains.