ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate rose slightly last month to 3.3%, up one-tenth of a point from the revised jobless rate of 3.2% the state posted in July, the Georgia Department of Labor reported Thursday. Still, the state’s August unemployment rate was five-tenths lower than the national jobless rate of 3.8%. The number of jobs, the number of employed Georgians, and the state’s labor force were all at all-time highs.

ATLANTA – Col. Chris Wright will retire from his position as commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety Oct. 1 after three years in the leadership post, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. The state Board of Public Safety voted Thursday to promote Lt. Col. William “Billy” Hitchens III, the agency’s deputy commissioner, to succeed Wright.

ATLANTA – The film industry spent $4.1 billion in Georgia during the last fiscal year, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday. That was below the $4.4 billion film and television productions spent in the Peach State during the previous fiscal year but above the $4. billion in direct spending the industry posted in fiscal 2021 as Georgia began to emerge from the pandemic.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s tourism industry not only has recovered from COVID-19 but even surpassed pre-pandemic numbers. A record 167.7 million domestic and international visitors traveled to the Peach State during the last calendar year, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Tuesday during the annual Georgia Governor’s Tourism Conference on Jekyll Island.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The state of Georgia and local governments are on track to give $2.1 billion in tax breaks and other incentives to Hyundai Motor Group after the South Korean automaker and a partner announced last month that it will invest an additional $2 billion at an electric vehicle complex it's building in Georgia.

DARIEN, Ga. (AP) — Descendants of enslaved people living on a Georgia island vowed to keep fighting Tuesday after county commissioners voted to double the maximum size of homes allowed in their tiny enclave, which residents fear will accelerate the decline of one of the South's few surviving Gullah-Geechee communities.

ATLANTA – COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in Georgia are rising but remain well below levels seen during the coronavirus pandemic, State Epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek said Tuesday. About 17.000 Georgians were hospitalized with the virus during the past week, an increase of 16% over the previous week, Drenzek told members of the Georgia Board of Public Health at their monthly meeting.

ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian P. Kemp suspended the state's excise tax on gasoline and diesel, effective Wednesday through Oct. 13, due to the 40-year-high inflation and negative economic conditions affecting residents of the state. The suspension was part of a state of emergency delcared by the governor Tuesday.

ATLANTA – Georgia has landed two of its universities among the ranks of the top-10 public universities in the nation. Georgia Tech is third in rankings platform Niche’s rankings of the 10 best public universities, while the University of Georgia placed ninth on the list.

ATLANTA (AP) — An additional 25 counties in Georgia are now eligible for federal funding to help with cleanup after Hurricane Idalia, state officials announced. Governments and electric cooperatives in the counties will be eligible for federal aid to pay for debris cleanup and the cost of emergency workers, the Georgia Emergency Management Agency said in a statement over the weekend.

ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia is taking advantage of a strong state economy by seeking a $385.4 million increase in its fiscal 2024 mid-year budget. With the state sitting on a massive budget surplus, Gov. Brian Kemp has given state agencies permission to request 3% spending increases in both the mid-year budget, which covers spending through next June, and the fiscal 2025 budget, which takes effect next July.

ATLANTA (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday approved a disaster declaration for three Georgia counties following Hurricane Idalia's sprint across southern and coastal Georgia on Aug. 30. The storm made landfall with 125 mph winds in Florida’s remote Big Bend region before moving north into Georgia. Biden initially approved assistance to individuals and governments in Cook, Glynn and Lowndes counties.

ATLANTA (AP) — Authorities arrested five activists, including two wearing clerical attire, who chained themselves to a bulldozer Thursday to halt construction of an Atlanta-area police and firefighter training center that opponents call “Cop City.” The protest occurred as a larger group gathered behind a chain-link fence to deliver a mock “stop work order” against the project.

ATLANTA – A Georgia-based recycled paper and packaging company will build a new production facility in the portion of Warner Robins in Peach County, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Thursday. Pratt Industries will invest more than $120 million in the project, which will create more than 125 jobs.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Descendants of enslaved people who populate a tiny island community are once again fighting local officials who have proposed eliminating protections that for decades helped shield the Gullah-Geechee residents from high taxes and pressure to sell their land to developers.

ATLANTA — Georgia State Police reported 21 fatalities in vehicle accidents over the Labor Day holiday travel period. State troopers investigated eight fatal crashes, in which nine people died, between Friday, Sept. 1, at 6:00 p.m., and Monday, Sept. 4, at 11:59 p.m.

ATLANTA – While there’s been an uptick of COVID-19 cases heading into the fall, help is on the way, Dr. Mandy Cohen, the new director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. A new booster shot will be available as early as next week, Cohen said at a luncheon at downtown Atlanta’s Commerce Club hosted by the Atlanta Press Club.

ATLANTA – A Korean automotive parts company will build a manufacturing plant in Metter to supply Georgia’s Kia facility and the new electric vehicles plant under construction west of Savannah, Gov. Brian Kemp announced Wednesday. DAS Corp. will invest more than $35 million in the project, which will create 300 jobs.

ATLANTA (AP) — A 24-year-old man died at an Atlanta hospital after being found unresponsive at a jail that is already being investigated by federal authorities for potential civil rights violations. A Fulton County Jail officer found Shawndre Delmore during a routine check just before 8:30 p.m. Aug. 31, the county sheriff's office said in a news release Wednesday. Jail staff attempted to revive Delmore until medical staff arrived, and he was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he died Sept. 3, the release says.

MACON, Ga. (AP) — Officials in middle Georgia's largest city are mandating that bars close at 2 a.m., an hour earlier than currently allowed, saying they believe an earlier closing time will reduce late-night crime. Macon-Bibb commissioners voted 5-4 on Tuesday in favor of earlier closings.

ATLANTA (AP) — Sixty-one people have been indicted in Georgia on racketeering charges following a long-running state investigation into protests against a proposed police and training facility in the Atlanta area that critics call “Cop City.” In the sweeping indictment, prosecutors allege the defendants are “militant anarchists” who have supported a violent movement that prosecutors trace to the widespread 2020 racial justice protests.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The Georgia Ports Authority will donate $6 million in coming years to improve affordable housing options in Savannah and neighboring communities, officials said Tuesday. The cash infusion to the Savannah Affordable Housing Fund will be the largest outside contribution to the fund since its founding 12 years ago, city officials said in a news release.

DULUTH, Georgia (AP) — Five people were killed and three more injured in a Labor Day crash along a Georgia interstate northeast of Atlanta, authorities said. The three-vehicle collision happened shortly before 4 a.m. Monday on a ramp to the southbound lanes of Interstate 85 in the Duluth area, Gwinnett County police said in a statement.

JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) — Police in Georgia on Saturday shot and killed a 17-year-old boy they said killed a police dog and pointed a gun at officers, authorities said. The Clayton County Police Department identified the teenager as Stephon Ford, 17. Assistant Police Chief Bruce Parks told news outlets that officers were trying to apprehend Ford, who was suspected of firing a gun at officers and killing a police dog earlier in the day. Parks said officers shot and killed Ford after he pointed a gun at them.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution said Thursday they will spend an additional $2 billion and hire an extra 400 workers to make batteries at the automaker’s sprawling U.S. electrical vehicle plant that’s under construction in Georgia. The announcement by the South Korea-based companies — one a major automaker, the other a leading producer of lithium-ion batteries used to power electric vehicles — expands on a partnership they launched three months ago to produce batteries at the same site west of Savannah, where Hyundai plans to start EV production in 2025.