SAVANNAH — A machine company has announced plans for an expansion of its Savannah facility that is expected to add up to 200 jobs.

The Savannah Morning News reports that K Machine Industrial Services LLC announced the expansion Tuesday, at a meeting of the Savannah Economic Development Authority.

Company officials say the firm will expand its existing Savannah facility by 20,000 square feet, adding larger machines and 150 to 200 new jobs when the project is complete in about two years.

The company specializes in the machining and repair of turbines, pumps and valves for a variety of industries, including Mitsubishi, Georgia Ports Authority and others. The company already employs nearly 500 workers at its 45,000-square-foot Savannah facility.

Farmers urged to tax break

MACON — Leaders in Georgia’s agriculture industry are urging farmers to get ready for a pending tax break.

Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black appeared Wednesday at the Georgia Farm Bureau in Macon to urge growers to apply for a break exempting them from paying sales tax on the materials needed to grow their goods. That tax break starts Jan. 1 and is part of a package of tax changes that state lawmakers approved this year.

Before the law passed, Georgia gave farmers inconsistent sales tax breaks on the goods needed to grow crops.

Black was joined at the news conference by Georgia Farm Bureau President Zippy Duval and Rep. Tom McCall, the chairman of the Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Committee.

FDA commissioner testifies

WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers challenged the country’s top medical regulator Wednesday to explain why her agency did not take action sooner against the specialty pharmacy at the center of a deadly meningitis outbreak.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has convened the first hearing to examine the outbreak that has sickened about 440 people and caused 32 deaths across the U.S. The illness has been tied to the New England Compounding Center, which distributed pain steroids that later tested positive for contamination.

Health officials say as many as 14,000 people received the steroid shots, mostly for back pain.

Board: Push auto technology

WASHINGTON — The government should require automakers to make the latest collision prevention technologies standard equipment on all new cars and trucks, a move that could reduce fatal highway accidents by more than half, federal accident investigators said Wednesday.

The technologies include lane departure warning, forward collision warning, adaptive cruise control, automatic braking and electronic stability control. They are available on many cars and trucks already, although some are limited primarily to higher-end models. The National Transportation Safety Board said they should be required on all vehicles, despite the auto industry’s concern that doing so could add thousands of dollars to the cost of a new car.

Such technologies can prevent accidents that involve running off the road, rear-ending another vehicle and lane-change maneuvers, the board said. Those types of accidents account for 60 percent of fatal highway accidents. There were more than 32,000 traffic deaths in the U.S. last year.