Gov. Nikki Haley will decide Thursday whether to order the evacuation of parts of the S.C. coast if Hurricane Irene is threatening the state.Until then, Haley said the state’s residents and visitors should rest easy, adding state officials are monitoring the storm closely and making preparations.It is possible Irene will make landfall over the North Carolina coast sometime Saturday, then move...

Three men face charges in connection with a home invasion in Columbia, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday.Desmond James Mitchell, 18, Ronald D. Mitchell, 20, and Louis Lamont McCreary-Hall, 33, are charged with burglary/breaking and entering, according to a Tuesday news release.Deputies responded to a home invasion around 1:10 p.m. Monday at Hidden Pines. The victim, w...

Three men face charges in connection with a home invasion in Columbia, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department announced Tuesday.Desmond James Mitchell, 18, Ronald D. Mitchell, 20, and Louis Lamont McCreary-Hall, 33, are charged with burglary/breaking and entering, according to a Tuesday news release.Deputies responded to a home invasion around 1:10 p.m. Monday at Hidden Pines. The victim,...

S.C. Republican officeholders have spent more than $500,000 in taxpayer money to give a half-dozen of their former campaign staffers high-paying state jobs at the same time that the state is laying off employees and the unemployment rate is 10.9 percent.That was the message from the S.C. Democratic Party Tuesday, which held a news conference to criticize how elected Republicans officials have hand...

A Virginia man has denied any involvement in the slayings of his wife and her three children, whose bodies were found in their burned apartment, police said Sunday.John Moses Ragin, 36, professed his innocence during interviews with Newport News police detectives who traveled to South Carolina, where he is being held, department spokesman Harold O. Eley said."Mr. Ragin denies any involvement whats...

The University of South Carolina has no immediate plans to lift the suspension on fraternity rush activities, following alleged alcohol violations by at least six of the university’s 18 participating fraternities, a USC official said today.The alleged incidents, which occurred Sunday through Wednesday during this week’s fraternity recruitment, were reported to USC’s Office of ...

The 11-year-old "mayor for a day" of a Dallas-area city is furious that a thief stole part of her legacy: a sign renaming Main Street for teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.The temporary sign for Justin Bieber Way went up Tuesday in Forney, Texas. The Dallas Morning News (http://dallasne.ws/ox5yvm) reports that by Thursday morning it was missing.The street renaming was one of Caroline Gonzalez's first ...

Horry County officials are giving parents a back-to-school warning: They'll be looking for out-of-state license plates in school parking lots.The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports ( http://bit.ly/rur73p) investigators with the Horry County Auditor's office will be looking at license plates as parents drop off and pick up their children. Classes resume Monday in Horry County.County Auditor Lois Earg...

A federal wildlife official is urging Grand Strand residents and boaters to be careful after a manatee was again spotted in Myrtle Beach area waters.The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reports ( http://bit.ly/p1uklo) that a manatee was reported Wednesday in the Garden City Beach area, but when officials returned Thursday they couldn't find it.Jennifer Koches of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says off...

Chinese basketball fans slammed a military team Friday for their part in an on-court brawl with visiting American players during a match that was supposed to promote goodwill during U.S. Vice President Joe Biden's visit.Video footage of the fighting between the Georgetown University men's basketball team and the Bayi Rockets, the army's Chinese Basketball Association team, on Thursday night in Bei...

Abercrombie & Fitch is offering to pay to Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino and his fellow "Jersey Shore" cast members so they'll stop wearing the brand on the show.The clothing company says in a news release posted Tuesday that it's concerned that having Sorrentino seen in its clothing could cause "significant damage" to the company's image.Abercrombie says a connection to The Situation goes agains...

A South Carolina teenager sentenced to six years for wounding a high school officer and bringing pipe bombs to Socastee High School says he doesn't remember much about that day last year.The 15-year-old juvenile was sentenced last week in Conway. He tells The Sun News http://bit.ly/qmty0k he can't believe what he did or why he did it. In a journal and an Internet video he had mentioned killing doz...

A South Carolina man has been hospitalized after being bitten by a bull shark 13 miles off Beaufort Inlet.The Carteret County News-Times reports (http://bit.ly/nnVxQ5) that 54-year-old Donnie White of Lexington was on a family fishing trip Thursday and decided to go for a swim before returning to shore.White was bitten on the lower right leg. Other people on the vessel used T-shirts and towels to ...

As Bank of America Corp.’s stock has tumbled and clawed back in recent days, city leaders, business owners and others with a stake in the company are waiting to see what happens next.The stock market swings have delivered a familiar feeling of anxiety to a city pummeled by the financial crisis. Local leaders and business owners say they aren’t as fearful this time. But they acknowled...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi has appointed three Democrats to Congress' new debt-reduction supercommittee, completing the 12-member panel's roster.The California Democrat appointed Reps. James E. Clyburn of South Carolina and Xavier Becerra of California, who are both members of the party's House leadership teams. She also named Maryland's Chris Van Hollen, top Democrat on the Budget Committ...

A 59-year-old man has been sentenced to two life terms in prison after a Greenville County jury convicted him on several charges of criminal sexual conduct involving two girls.The Greenville News reported (http://bit.ly/n6WSQ6) that Marshall Dewitt McGaha was sentenced Wednesday on charges of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, a lewd act on a child and illegal conduct toward a child.McGaha main...

Local prosecutors will not charge the father of a 9-month-old who died from the heat after being left in a car, unattended, on Father’s Day.Jayden Davis was closed in a car at Charbonneau Apartments for three to four hours, Columbia Police said. The average temperature that day, June 19, June day was 92.Wednesday, the 5th Circuit Solicitor’s Office concluded “that despite the terrib...

The Army has identified two special operations pilots from Fort Campbell, Ky., killed when their helicopter crashed during a training exercise in Georgia.An Army news release Wednesday said the soldiers killed were Capt. John D. Hortman, 30, of Inman, S.C., and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Steven B. Redd, 37, of Lancaster, Calif. Both served in the 1st Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regim...

Riverbanks Zoo is introducing its newest arrival – a giraffe calf born on July 11.This is the second calf born to giraffes Charlie and Ginger. It weighed 105 pounds and stood 5 feet tall at birth. “We are very excited about this latest addition to our giraffe herd,” said John Davis, curator of mammals, said in a news release. “The calf is doing very well and growing at ...

Singer Darius Rucker and comedian Bill Murray will be in the dugouts as captains of celebrity softball teams playing to raise money to fight childhood obesity.A news conference is to be held in Charleston on Tuesday to announce details of October's "Slim Down the South Celebrity Softball Challenge." The event is being held Oct. 1 at Riley Park in Charleston.Money raised will be used by a nonprofit...

Two Pentagon officials told McClatchy Newspapers on Monday that an investigation into the helicopter crash that killed 30 American troops would probe whether it's a mistake to send the large, lumbering Chinook helicopter into a Taliban firefight, where it's a target for insurgents. As the remains of the 30 troops killed in the military's deadliest incident of the Afghan war were being flown back ...

Florence Sen. Hugh Leatherman says money offered to help convince a pharmaceutical company to keep its plant open has been returned to the state.The Morning News of Florence reported ( http://bit.ly/phnuED) that Leatherman had worked to get $500,000 in incentive money from the state Commerce Department to convince Roche Carolina to keep its plant open.The company had said in November it might clos...

Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman is campaigning in South Carolina, the site of the first presidential primary in the South.The former governor of Utah plans to tour Boeing's new $750 million assembly plant in North Charleston on Monday. He plans to hold a news conference later.The company is assembling its new 787 jetliners at the plant. It is the subject of a National Labor Relations ...

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 ...

U.S. investors will have their first chance Monday to react to Standard & Poor's decision to strip the U.S. government of its top credit rating. But the bigger issues facing Wall Street and stock markets worldwide remain debt-ridden countries in Europe and concerns that the global economy is weakening.Friday's first-ever downgrade of U.S. long-term debt from AAA to AA+ wasn't unexpected and may ha...

The Horry County grand jury has indicted a Mullins man on a murder charge in the beating death of a man in Conway earlier this year.The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported ( http://bit.ly/mYsjSB) 21-one-year-old Christopher Leron Cooper had been arrested in April in the death of 22-year-old Kendall Williams of Mullins.Police say Williams was beaten and kicked during a fight at a home in Conway on Ap...

Myrtle Beach police are looking for a man they say ran into his wife with a Volkswagen Beetle during an argument.The Sun News of Myrtle Beach reported (http://bit.ly/rpTnN6) the 51-year-old woman was taken to a hospital with a broken leg and cuts to her body.Police Capt. David Knipes said the argument happened Thursday evening at a local campground.Police are looking for the woman's husband.A witn...

WASHINGTON — After a spate of bad economic news and a 10-day pounding of stock prices, Friday’s jobs report is likely to play an outsized role in either calming the waters or deepening fears that the U.S. economy is sliding back toward recession. Stocks plummeted Thursday as investors fretted about weakening economic conditions and emergency steps announced by the European Central Bank...

Criminal investigations – resulting in some historic convictions – have concluded into fraud allegations among Savannah River Site contractors about misuse of federal money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, better known as the stimulus package.The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia announced the end of the investigation today. The office worked with the Departm...

Authorities say a high school football player in Darlington County collapsed and died after a morning practice.The Morning News of Florence reports Sunday that 14-year-old Tyquan Xavier Brantley collapsed as he walked off the practice field Saturday. He died at the hospital.Brantley was a rising ninth grader at Lamar High School.A Darlington County School District spokeswoman says it was the team'...