February 10, 2012

Rev. Darby on NAACP, ACC, McConnell

The state NAACP annual conference was held in Charlotte over the last four days. The meeting has been held out of South Carolina since the year 2000 as part of the civil rights organization’s sanctions against the state for flying the Confederate flag in front of the statehouse.

Rev. Joe Darby and others approve of that decision. Darby is pastor at Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston, and 1st Vice President of the Charleston NAACP. He previously held that position with the state NAACP. 

Darby says the NAACP’s decision is a positive gesture that goes beyond the sanctions. 

In a op-ed piece in The State newspaper, Senate leader Glenn McConnell, a Charleston Republican, criticized the ACC(Atlantic Coast Conference) for decisions to sanction South Carolina.

The ACC recently announced a decision to move its 2011-13 baseball championships from Myrtle Beach to North Carolina, saying that the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds violates its commitment to diversity and human rights. [Read more...]

Gator bites off Beaufort golfer’s arm

A man’s arm was bitten off by an alligator at a Beaufort golf course Thursday and the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources says it’s not common. A 77-year-old man was playing golf at the Ocean Creek Golf Course in Beaufort around 3 p.m. Thursday when he was picking up his golf ball near a pond, and a 10-foot alligator pulled him into the pond. SCDNR spokesman Jay Butfilowski says this case is not a usual occurrence.

Alligator at public access:Sea Pines, Hilton Head

“Not really in them to pursue people on land. This incident was unfortunate. It was an unusual event, to say the least. You don’t hear about these things very often,” says Butfilowski.

The Fripp Island man, whose name has not been released, lost his lower arm in the attack. Some of the man’s golf partners were able to free the man from the pond. Tracks Wildlife Control workers were able to kill the alligator and rescue the man’s detached arm. [Read more...]

Three minimum security inmates gone in two days

(Update: As of  Friday evening,  Department of Corrections officials say that David Edwards and Nikita Brannon have been apprehended.)

Three minimum security inmates have walked away from South Carolina work assignments or facilities just during the last few days. The latest is 23-year-old David Edwards, missing from Campbell Pre-Release Center in Columbia since Thursday night. He was last seen at his work assignment at the Columbia Farms poultry plant in West Columbia.

Edwards is black, stands 5 feet 11 inches tall, 220 pounds, and has multiple tattoos. Edwards started serving a one year, four-month sentence in June for fraud insufficient funds check.

Also on Thursday, 22-year-old Patrick Frazier went missing from Aiken County’s Wire Road facility in Columbia the previous Thursday.

Authorities say the day before that, 31-year-old Nikita Brannon left er work release job at KFC in Irmo. Brannon had spent 15 months at Goodman Correctional Institution in Columbia on a charge of distribution of crack in proximity to a school in Cherokee County. She was scheduled for release next January.

All of the escapees now face felony escape charges that carry up to 15 years in prison. [Read more...]

H1N1 shipments arrive in S.C.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control reported today that South Carolina sites have begun receiving some shipments of the H1N1 vaccine.

The agency submitted orders for 26,300 doses of vaccine with the Centers for Disease Control and its distributor, McKesson, Monday, Oct. 5.   They received notification of the arrival of a shipment this morning at several DHEC public health departments around the state. Private providers may also be receiving shipments today as well.

 DHEC is now ordering an additional 27,300 doses. More will be ordered as soon as more is allotted to the state by the CDC. South Carolina may receive up to 2-million doses of H1N1 vaccine by the end of December.

Once sufficient amounts of vaccines are here they will begin announcing plans and locations where residents can get the H1N1 vaccine. Check their Web site, www.scdhec.gov/flu for updates and information about both H1N1 and regular seasonal flu.

Security for Savannah River Site

The federal government has picked up the tab for the security for the Savannah River Site for the next decade. The U.S. Department of Energy has signed a nearly $1 billion contract with an international private security company to continue to serve as the security arm to protect the Savannah River Site. Officials announced Thursday that the D.O.E. had hired Wackenhut Services for $989 million over the next 10 years. The company based in Palm Beach, Florida currently provides security at the S-R-S site near Aiken. The contract includes protecting nuclear material and facilities from sabotage.