CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Two Tennessee deputies were wounded and a kidnapping suspect was killed in an exchange of gunfire on Interstate 75 after a pursuit across state lines, authorities said. The pursuit began Sunday in Catoosa County, Georgia, when deputies tried to stop Tyler L. Roberts, 31, who was suspected of kidnapping a young child and assaulting an officer, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.

ATLANTA — As a Southern Baptist, Suzanne Guy felt obligated to push for passage of an antisemitism bill that cleared the state legislature on Thursday. “It should be important to everyone because it is important to the God of the Bible who has a special covenant with the Jewish people,” Guy said after the measure received final passage and was sent to Gov. Brian Kemp who is expected to sign it into law.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — The company seeking permits to mine minerals near the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp and its vast wildlife refuge has agreed to pay a $20,000 fine to Georgia environmental regulators, who say the company violated state laws while collecting soil samples for its permit application. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division's assessment of a civil penalty against Twin Pines Minerals comes as the Alabama-based company waits for the agency to approve a final mining plan for how it would conduct mining operations and mitigate any environmental damage.

ATLANTA – Georgia House Republican leaders rolled out a tax cut package Wednesday aimed at parents and homeowners specifically but also benefiting all taxpayers. “Taken together, these bills will provide significant tax relief for Georgia taxpayers … and continue to boost the economy,” House Speaker Jon Burns, R-Newington, told reporters during a news conference at the state Capitol.

ATLANTA — A Boeing 757 jet operated by Delta Air Lines lost a nose wheel while preparing for takeoff from Atlanta, potentially creating more uncertainty around one of the nation's top manufacturers after a troubling string of incidents involving its planes. Delta Flight 982 — headed to Bogota, Colombia — was taxiing for departure at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport when the incident took place around 11:15 a.m. Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the incident.

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — One of Georgia's busy seaports is being awarded a $15 million federal grant to help pay for new docks and other upgrades at one of its shipping terminals. The Port of Brunswick, about 70 miles south of Savannah, will receive the funding through a U.S. Department of Transportation grant funded by the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure law.

ATLANTA (AP) — The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s daughter remembered her late brother on Tuesday as a fierce and visionary steward of their father's legacy. The Rev. Bernice King choked back tears at times as she shared memories of her childhood and recent visits with Dexter Scott King, who died Monday after a yearslong battle with prostate cancer. He was 62.

When Layken Edenfield was little, her moods would switch quickly, her mother, Teresa Edenfield remembers. “One minute she'd be happy and laughing, and the next minute she'd be crying her eyes out,” Edenfield said. “She was really hypersensitive about certain things around, or really terrified.”

ATLANTA – A state Senate committee unanimously approved a new version of legislation Monday defining antisemitism and incorporating it into Georgia’s hate crimes law following a hearing that featured emotional arguments for and against the measure. House Bill 30 passed the Georgia House of Representatives last year but died in the Senate.

ATLANTA (AP) — Dexter Scott King, the younger son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, died Monday after battling prostate cancer. The King Center in Atlanta, which Dexter King served as chairman, said the 62-year-old son of the civil rights icon died at his home in Malibu, California. His wife, Leah Weber King, said in a statement that he died “peacefully in his sleep.”

ATLANTA (AP) — With a runup in home values sparking higher property taxes for many Georgia homeowners, there is a groundswell among state lawmakers in this election year to provide relief. Georgia's Senate Finance Committee plans a hearing on Monday on a bill limiting increases in a home's value, as assessed for property tax purposes, to 3% per year. The limit would last as long as the owner maintained a homestead exemption. Voters would have to approve the plan in a November referendum.

ATLANTA – A nonprofit formed to help administer a new state tax credit to support foster children aging out of the system raised nearly $10 million during its first year. Legislation the General Assembly passed unanimously last year authorized $20 million for the tax credit.

ATLANTA – Georgia’s unemployment rate held steady at 3.4% in December for the fourth month in a row, the state Department of Labor reported Thursday. The Peach State continued to outperform the nation, with the national jobless rate at 3.7%.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia, a capital for electric vehicle production, needs to increase its supply of electricity produced without burning fossil fuels in order to meet industries’ demand for clean energy, Gov. Brian Kemp told world business leaders Thursday. Speaking as part of a panel focused on electric vehicles at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the Republican governor highlighted the construction of Georgia Power’s two new nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle, near Augusta — the country's first new reactors in decades.

ATLANTA – The University System of Georgia’s new direct admissions program is off to a strong start, despite not getting off the ground until well after classes began last fall, system Chancellor Sonny Perdue said Wednesday. Nearly 12,000 high school seniors had requested information about the GEORGIA MATCH program through Jan. 7 or taken it a step further by claiming a spot at one of the system’s 23 colleges and universities participating in the initiative.

ATLANTA – A nonprofit health-care organization announced plans Wednesday to help financially struggling rural hospitals in Georgia in danger of closing. Ohio-based CareSource will contribute $5 million in emergency funding to hospitals and hospital-owned nursing homes in rural communities suffering critical cash deficits.

BAINBRIDGE, Ga. (AP) — Some local residents and an animal-rights group are protesting plans for a monkey-breeding facility in southwest Georgia. Opponents on Tuesday urged the Bainbridge City Council to block plans by a company called Safer Human Medicine to build a $396 million complex that would eventually hold up to 30,000 long-tailed macaques that would be sold to universities and pharmaceutical companies for medical research. The company says it plans to employ up to 263 workers.

ATLANTA – Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is referring the cases of 17 Georgians suspected of having voted twice in 2022 to district attorneys in nine counties where those voters live. These voters are suspected of voting once in Georgia in the November 2022 general election and again in another state.

Gov. Brian Kemp is talking up Georgia to foreign business and political big wigs for the second January in a row. Kemp is spending the week in Davos, Switzerland, attending the World Economic Forum, meeting business executives and political leaders and taking part in discussion panels.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia education officials want to provide literacy coaches to help train teachers to improve reading instruction, even as some prominent lawmakers say the state Department of Education isn't doing enough to implement a literacy law passed last year.

ATLANTA (AP) — After years of holding spending far below what Georgia was collecting in revenue, Gov. Brian Kemp is proposing a big boost in outlays. In budgets released Thursday, the Republican governor proposes spending an additional $5 billion in the current budget running through June.

ATLANTA (AP) — The Georgia Senate is nominating a fifth member to the State Election Board as House Speaker Jon Burns pushes for changes in voting and says he wants to make the board more independent of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.

ATLANTA – Cases of COVID-19 and flu have risen sharply in Georgia since the Christmas holidays, state epidemiologist Dr. Cherie Drenzek reported Tuesday. COVID cases have increased by about 50% since last week, hospitalizations are up 75%, and deaths have risen by 10%, Drenzek told members of the Georgia Board of Public Health.

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Wednesday he'll propose $1.8 billion in added spending on infrastructure, as well as expand health care training for dentists and physicians, showing how the state's $11 billion in surplus cash is giving the Republican clout to spend big even as state revenues slow.

ATLANTA (AP) — A man who was being held at the problem-plagued Fulton County Jail in Atlanta died Wednesday at a hospital after he was found unresponsive in his cell, authorities said.