Protests against Wall Street entered their 18th day Tuesday as demonstrators across the country show their anger over the wobbly economy and what they see as corporate greed by marching on Federal Reserve banks and camping out in parks from Los Angeles to Portland, Maine.Demonstrations are expected to continue throughout the week as more groups hold organizational meetings and air their concerns o...

Avoid foreign produce. Wash and peel your fruit. Keep it refrigerated. None of these common tips would have guaranteed your safety from the deadliest food outbreak in a decade, the one involving cantaloupes from Colorado.Whether it's sprouts or spinach, turkey or hamburger; whether the government doubled, tripled or quadrupled inspections, the truth is that no food will ever be completely free of ...

Oil prices fell to near $83 a barrel Wednesday in Asia after a sharp rally ahead of the release of key U.S. data that could indicate the economic health of the world's largest crude consumer nation.Benchmark oil fell $1.26, or 1.5 percent, to $83.19 a barrel at midafternoon Kuala Lumpur time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract surged $4.21 to finish at $84.45 pe...

President Obama on Monday proposed bailing out the U.S. Postal Service, urging that it be allowed to cut mail delivery to five days a week and raise the price of postage. He also proposed allowing the service to get a $6.9 billion refund from an over funded pension fund. “Bold action is needed,” Obama said. “The administration recognizes the enormous value of the U.S. Postal ...

One path to peace is in the message and who delivers it. That idea sank in for 1st Lt. Carter Langston, a Rock Hill native stationed in Afghanistan, when he learned that an American pastor and about 30 spectators had burned a Quran in Florida.In a country where anti-American sentiment already runs high, a few angry leaders in Afghanistan urged people to avenge the insult. The result was the deaths...

Taliban insurgents launched a coordinated attack Tuesday on the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in the heart of the Afghan capital on Tuesday, firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles.An embassy spokeswoman said no staff were reported wounded, but officials said at least one Afghan police officer and two insurgents had been killed as gunfire and explosions resounded across the city w...

A powerful Taliban truck bomb that wounded 77 American soldiers and killed five Afghans outside a combat outpost served as a reminder on Sunday that 10 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, nearly 100,000 U.S. troops are still fighting a war that shows no signs of slowing down.No U.S. troops were killed when the massive bomb loaded on a truck filled with firewood exploded Saturday night just outside t...

Duke Energy’s proposed merger with Progress Energy got the blessing of a key constituent Friday, raising hopes that the merger will be approved by regulators. Charlotte-based Duke agreed to buy in-state rival Progress Energy for $13.7 billion in January. If completed, the merger would create the nation’s largest utility, with 7.1 million customers in six states. But utility mergers ...

Ousted Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's wife and other relatives fled to Algeria Monday, the Algerian foreign ministry said.The Algerian government said Gadhafi's wife, daughter, two of his sons and their children entered the neighboring country on Monday. It did not say whether Gadhafi himself was with the family.It said the U.N. secretary-general and Security Council and the head of Libyan rebel ...

The Richland County Sheriff’s Department released a video Wednesday in asking for the public’s help to identify a purse snatcher.A surveillance video pointed at the parking lot of the Bi-Lo grocery at 2230 Decker Blvd captured the Tuesday afternoon incident: A thinly built black man, 5 feet 10 inches tall and wearing a lime green polo shirt and black pants approaches a woman walking towa...

Fresh fighting erupted in Tripoli on Tuesday hours after Moammar Gadhafi's son turned up free to thwart Libyan rebel claims he had been captured, a move that seems to have energized forces still loyal to the embattled regime.Rebels and pro-regime troops fought fierce street battles in several parts of the city, a day after opposition fighters swept into the capital with relative ease, claiming to ...

Amazon hopes to move into its new distribution center near Cayce by Sept. 30 and hire up to 2,000 seasonal and full-time by the end of the year, company officials said today.Workers are starting to outfit the million-square-foot plant, near I-77 and 12th Street, with shelves, conveyor belts and other equipment, plant manager John Petta said.So far, the company has hired between 400-500 permanent e...

Mary Kaye Huntsman spoke to a group of about 50 Midlands Republican women Tuesday night urging them not to give up on her husband, Republican presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, even as he trails in the most recent national polls.Huntsman spoke in Columbia on the last day of her two-day trip to South Carolina that included stops in Spartanburg and Charleston. Her trip coincided with Republican pr...

For the dozen lawmakers tasked with producing a deficit-cutting plan, the threatened "doomsday" defense cuts hit close to home.The six Republicans and six Democrats represent states where the biggest military contractors - Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics Corp., Raytheon Co. and Boeing Co. - build missiles, aircraft, jet fighters and tanks while employing tens of thousands of workers.The potentia...

A man wanted as a suspect in a hotel robbery earlier this month has been identifed through surveillance video in the lobby, despite the robber’s efforts to cover his face.Columbia police are looking for Trayon Christopher Bannister, 21, charging him with armed robbery, kidnapping, first degree assault and battery and possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime.The surve...

The state Budget and Control Board voted unanimously today to increase the amount that state employees and their employers pay for their health insurance.The 9 percent increase was spread equally among employees and employers, with a 4.5 percent increase for each.State employees who only pay for their own health insurance will pay an extra 42 cents a month. State employees who also pay for their s...

A northeast Ohio man ran through his small town neighborhood Sunday shooting eight people, including his girlfriend and her brother, before he was shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire with police, authorities said.Eight people, including the gunman, were killed. Witnesses told reporters at least one of the victims was a child.Police did not have a motive and did not release the names or ages ...

A 19-year-old West Columbia man was arrested Thursday in connection with a shooting incident Tuesday on the 300 block of 9th Street.According to the police, Jalon T. Taylor was charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting an unidentified minor in the groin as the victim walked along 9th Street with a friend around 3 p.m. Taylor was driving a car that pulled alongside the victim. After a ve...

Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the Army's flagship hospital where privates to presidents have gone for care, is closing its doors after more than a century.Hundreds of thousands of the nation's war wounded from World War I to today have received treatment at Walter Reed, including 18,000 troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.President Dwight Eisenhower died there. So did Gens. John J. Pershi...

When President Barack Obama complains about House Republicans unwilling to compromise on a deficit reduction package, he's talking about Rep. Jim Jordan, a former wrestling champion from Ohio who is becoming a driving force in the debt debate on Capitol Hill.Jordan's district is right next to Speaker John Boehner's in the western part of Ohio, but ideologically, he is miles apart from the Republic...

In the battle to raise the debt ceiling, politics usually trumps principle. How else to explain the 180-degree turns that lawmakers of both parties have made in congressional debt ceiling votes since 2002? President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the biggest supporters today for boosting the debt limit, voted against it in 2006. “The fact that we’re here today ...

InfoIf you’re in a jam with too many figs on your tree, Midlands chef Kristian Niemi will help you out.Niemi, who owns Rosso Trattoria Italia at Trenholm Plaza, is offering gift certificates in exchange for figs.Bring your figs to the restaurant or arrange for Niemi to pick them off your tree, and you’ll get a gift certificate to use at Rosso’s.Niemi has done this before, sol...

A panel working on competitiveness issues for South Carolina's proposed state-run health care exchange is planning to meet.The panel meeting Monday is part of the South Carolina Health Planning Committee that Gov. Nikki Haley established earlier this year.It will make policy recommendations about whether it is feasible for the state to create its own health exchange under federal health care law.I...

They've been roundly cheered but occasionally jeered on their first foreign trip since they were married. But will Britain's Prince William and the former Kate Middleton now be revered when they arrive in Tinseltown?There may not be time.Following a nine-day visit to Canada, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are flying south Friday to spend a tightly scripted weekend in Los Angeles that is more bu...

A University of South Carolina professor who encourages her students to use Twitter in French class is being honored by the French government with an honorary knighthood.University spokeswoman Peggy Binette (Bin-net) says associate professor Lara Anderson has been awarded the Order of Academic Palms for advancing the French language.The honor was established by Napoleon Bonaparte. Binette says the...

It's William Whipple's turn to be recognized.The New Hampshire merchant is one of the lesser-known signers of the Declaration of Independence. This year, there are plans for Whipple and 11 others to be honored for their place in history with a small bronze plaque at their gravesites or homes, thanks to a group of descendants of the Founding Fathers.Whipple, one of three men from New Hampshire who ...

TODAYCIVILIAN SAFETY AWARENESS PROGRAM: 6-10 tonight, Lexington County James R. Metts Law Enforcement Complex, 521 Gibson Road, Lexington. Residents will learn how to be aware of their surroundings and defend themselves. Must be at least 16 or older. Free. Space limited; Lexington County residents given preference. Call to register. (803) 785-2400PALMETTO HEALTH’S PRE-DIABETES NUTRITION AND...

Gov. Nikki Haley's push to add a bill creating a cabinet-level Department of Administration to the General Assembly's extended session agenda has failed its first test in the state Senate.Adding the bill to the session’s agenda would require the support of two-thirds of state senators -- or 31 votes. But the proposal won only 25 votes Wednesday in the Republican-controlled Senate.Most of th...

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, once the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said Monday he's seeking the GOP nomination for president, vowing he's "in it to win it."Santorum, a favorite among his party's social conservatives, chose to confirm his plans during an appearance Monday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America" at the banner-draped site he chose in the western Pennsylvania coalfields...

A Lexington convenience store cashier has been arrested after he allegedly sold tobacco to teen boys in exchange for sexual favors, the Lexington County Sheriff's Department reported.Terrence Everett Bryant, 50, has been charged with three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child younger than 16, the sheriff's department reported. The sheriff's department began investigating Bryant after the f...