TheState.com: Local / Metro

Community service worth smiling about

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:20 EST

Some Midlands dentists and practitioners will be offering bigger smiles to those in need Friday.

Vista Smiles of Columbia will join other area medical professionals for the second Heart of Dentistry day, when they’ll provide a range of basic dental care to residents at no charge.

“Everyday in our hustle and bustle of life we fail to see people around us who are less fortunate,” said Dr. Benetta Bell. “This is an opportunity for us to contribute our services to our community and put a smile on the faces of others.”

The free services will run from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at Vista Smiles, 515 Richland St., near the Governor’s Mansion.

Patients can choose from a dental cleaning, routine filling or extraction. They will be seen on a first come, first served basis, and tickets will be given out between 7-7:30 a.m.

West Columbia looks at face-lift

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:57 EST

West Columbia is looking at a face-lift for its oldest commercial corridor.

City officials are preparing a redevelopment plan for Meeting Street and surrounding neighborhoods, an area they call a gateway from the Congaree River.

The 129.5-acre area contains about 150 stores and offices and about 50 homes, many of them up to a century old.

It needs “some sprucing up,” Mayor Joe Owens said.

The T-shaped area extends along Meeting Street west from the river for a mile, with arms along State Street and Sunset Boulevard.

Midlands Most Wanted

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:42 EST

Each Monday, The State newspaper will run information on a suspect wanted by authorities.

NAME: Jason Boulware

DATE OF BIRTH: April 17, 1980

DESCRIPTION: Boulware is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs 150 pounds.

WANTED BY: Richland County Sheriff’s Department

Navy veteran is glad for help

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:01 EST

As a Navy cook for 21 years, Rubin Taylor had been all over the world, crossed the equator multiple times and faced many challenging situations.

But the situation that would prove to be the most challenging would come well after Taylor, now 51, had left the Navy.

“I had a hard time adjusting to civilian life,” said Taylor, who landed in Jacksonville, Fla., after retiring from a career at sea in 1999. “I found myself being swallowed up, but God is turning that around.”

In 2010, after years of struggling in Florida, Taylor and his wife, Ada, decided to move to Columbia in hopes of finding a better opportunity. A 1984 graduate of Jacksonville University’s culinary arts program, Taylor turned to the one thing he knew best: food.

“I can cook anything,” he said. “So I wanted a change and I had hope of working in a restaurant.”

Community Calendar, Feb. 13

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:35 EST

TODAY

LOVE YOURSELF HEALTH FAIR: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. today at the Richland County Recreation Commission Adult Activity Center, 7494 Parklane Road. Vendors, health screenings, informational booths; free and open to ages 21 and older. (803) 462-9995

TUESDAY

ALLEN UNIVERSITY FOUNDER’S DAY COMMEMORATION: 10 a.m. Tuesday in the J.H. Adams Gymnatorium, 1530 Harden St. Speaker will be the Rev. William Watley. (803) 376-5728; www.allenuniversity.edu

SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCING: 7 p.m. Tuesdays at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 3200 Trenholm Road. Free. (803) 345-0158 or email billmac85@yahoo.com

This week in local government

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 00:37 EST

Richland County

Government

Columbia City Council: 2 p.m. Tuesday , the Arts & Historic Preservation Committee, 2nd-floor conference room, City Hall, 1737 Main St.

Schools

Scorned Lancaster reclaims passion, pride

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:09 EST

Educators call it the “teachable moment,” the time when students not only learn but also act.

For the young and old of Lancaster, a brush with the national limelight has given them that moment, a time to respond with passion and authority to shout pridefully, “We are Lancaster.”

It was CNN that turned its spotlight on Lancaster, arriving in the city just days before the state’s first-in-the-South GOP primary. CNN crews traveled the town and talked with residents, spending at least five hours recording interviews at Ken Killingsworth’s downtown restaurant, Charley’s Cafe.

CNN’s report, in many locals’ opinion, was too negative with too much hyperbole, painting Lancaster as a one-stoplight town with nothing shining.

Lines about “Southern drawls so strong they might need subtitling,” or about the parking lots at the Dollar General and the credit union repo lot “brimming with cars” because the town is struggling in the wake of a bad economy and the closing the major employer – Springs Industries in 2007 – upset residents.

Woodyard fund contributions

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 01:01 EST

For the week ending Feb. 10

Lewis F. Knudsen Jr, $50

Kenneth and Gail Kinard, $75

In honor of Brenda P. Turner, $300

Timothy T. Hawks, $25

More pit bulls stolen from Columbia animal shelter

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 23:59 EST

For the third consecutive weekend, a pit bull thief broke into the Columbia Animal Shelter, opened cages and made off with five more of the breed popularly known as among the most fierce of canines.

This time, however, recently installed police security cameras captured high-definition photos of a lone suspect – a stocky man wearing a hood, gloves and loose-fitting dark clothing. The hood appears to cover much of the face.

“Obviously, he’s wearing a disguise, but criminals are bold these days,” said police spokeswoman Jennifer Timmons.

“We are hoping that someone will recognize him from the photos we’re releasing.”

The five dogs snatched over the weekend – before 9 p.m. Saturday, police said – bring the total to 16 of pit bulls abducted from the pound since the weekend of Jan. 29.

Traffic stop helps Pelion officer nab hit-and-run suspect

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 21:56 EST

A tip from a Pelion police officer apparently gave the South Carolina Highway Patrol the lucky break they needed to make an arrest in a Lexington County hit-and-run case last week.

Romeo Romero Jr. surrendered to the SC Highway Patrol Sunday morning at the Lexington County Detention Center. He is charged with leaving the scene of a collision involving a death. More charges may be filed.

When Irma Hudson, 59, stepped out of her truck Wednesday night to pick up some trash that had flown out of the vehicle’s cargo area, she was struck and killed by a pickup truck on SC 302 a few miles west of Pelion. A child was in her truck at the time but not physically injured.

Within minutes, a Pelion police officer stopped Romero for an unrelated traffic violation, according to the Highway Patrol. The Pelion officer wrote a ticket, then, having no reason to detain him, let Romero go.

Within an hour, that officer heard over the radio about the hit-and-run and drove out to the death scene. He told troopers at the site that he may have just ticketed a person of interest.

An important little spot

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 18:09 EST

Deborah Tallent could get her mail delivered to her house, but she likes stopping by the LeNoir Store, so she pays $44 a year to rent a post office box instead.

When she and her husband first moved to rural Sumter County, Tallent was homesick. She told the postmaster, Steve LeNoir, that her mother was sending her a homemade pecan pie from Arkansas. As soon as it arrived, LeNoir called to tell her.

“He’s just wonderful. The whole family, it’s not just Steve,” Tallent beamed. “We’re not just customers to them.”

The LeNoir family has run a one-room country store in this farming community for 200 years.

Poll confirms strong sense of faith in S.C.

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:34 EST

A new Winthrop Poll confirms what most people who spend any time in the Palmetto State already know: South Carolinians are unabashedly religious, largely evangelical and armed with a strong belief that the Bible is the infallible word of God.

But faith leaders and parishioners say the poll questions – including one that found 62 percent believe the Bible is the literal word of God – aren’t nuanced enough to incorporate the range of theological interpretations such questions arouse in those who take their faith seriously.

“I see no conflict between the inerrant word of God and seeing things figuratively,” said Don Bowen, a Southern Baptist who describes himself as a born-again Christian. “Jesus says we are to be light and salt, but I don’t think of myself as a 1,000-watt light bulb or a block of salt.”

The Bible, particularly the New Testament, is rich in parables and metaphors and must be studied to understand God’s meaning, he said.

Even then, he noted, faith remains a mystery. “What I’ve come to the conclusion is, an infinite God is under no obligation to explain to me, Don Bowen as a finite man, how He chooses to reveal himself.”

New SC-NC border will affect some residents

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 19:03 EST

On May 24, 1772, William Moultrie took a break from surveying the South Carolina-North Carolina border to visit little Charlotte Town, which he described as having five or six houses, “very ordinary built of logs.”

Nearly 240 years later, Charlotte has a few more houses. But the passage of time and the developers who built those houses have cut down the trees that Moultrie and his crew blazed with axes to mark the border between the two Carolinas. So when homeowners along that border – and some tax collectors – asked state officials to point out where the boundary is, they couldn’t do it.

Later this year, however, officials finally will know again where the South Carolina-North Carolina border is as they finish 18 years of work, at a cost of $980,000, to re-establish the boundary.

That work could give scores of homeowners in both states new addresses, driver’s licenses and school districts.

State borders can be tricky and expensive issues. South Carolina spent $10 million and 12 years fighting Georgia over 3,000 acres of mostly uninhabited islands and 10,000 acres of water along the Savannah River.

Advocates fight for high school cabinetmaking program

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:24 EST

A Columbia businessman who served as an unpaid adviser to the cabinetmaking program at Richland Northeast High School has received national support for retaining the industrial arts program, but acknowledged he holds out little hope that the district will relent and restore the program.

“We’ve asked the hard questions,” said Jim McGrew, owner of James McGrew Cabinetmakers in downtown Columbia. McGrew plans to make one more appeal before the Richland 2 school board Tuesday night. McGrew has asked for a meeting with Richland Northeast principal Sabrina Suber, who is moving to dismantle the school’s woodworking and auto repair programs to make way for health sciences and culinary arts programs. Suber has said the new programs will generate more student interest and prepare students for jobs in growing industries.

Richland Northeast’s two shop instructors were informed in mid-January that their positions will be eliminated, although the school board has yet to approve the $1.5 million necessary to retrofit school space for the two new programs.

Will Sampson, editor of Cabinetmaker+FDM, a magazine for professional woodworkers, has been monitoring the outcome of the Richland 2 cabinetmaking program. He said it follows a pattern nationwide, in which public schools are abandoning traditional vocational programs that would prepare teenagers for manufacturing jobs.

“Sadly, they continue to move away from them,” said Sampson, who was unsuccessful in retaining the high school woodworking program in his own Connecticut community. “I hear from folks all across the country and, by and large, there seems to be a bias in the public school toward training kids for college programs and no awareness of the availability of profitable high-paying jobs in the industrial sector, particularly woodworking.”

Deadly attacks on police rise

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 09:33 EST

Shootings between police and suspects are on the rise around South Carolina and the nation, and officers are in more danger than ever before, police say.

“You are always walking into the unknown,” said Columbia Police officer Alex Broder, 24.

Broder should know. Last May, in his first week as a police officer, he and a partner stopped a motorist who’d been driving suspiciously. It was 4 a.m. in Columbia’s upscale Shandon community. Broder got out of the driver’s side of his patrol car to approach the motorist.

“He opened the door, his left foot hit the ground, his right foot stayed in the vehicle, and he extended his arm, fired one shot and got back in the car – in just about one second,” Broder recalled last week. The bullet, a 7.62 rifle round, struck Broder square in the chest. He fell.

Fortunately, he was wearing a bulletproof vest and survived. The shooter, Blakely Jernigan, a troubled former Clemson student suspected of dealing drugs, sped off. Jernigan was shot to death later that morning by a city SWAT team when he charged them firing an AK-74.

"Stay out of Iran" protest held in Five Points

Sun, 12 Feb 2012 00:04 EST

A small group of people from Columbia and across the state braved cold and blustery conditions today to protest recent measures taken by the federal government – measures they say could lead to another conflict in the Middle East.

“Does the majority of people even know we could be going to war with Iran?” asked Thom Taylor, who held a sign that read, ‘War is not the answer.’

Taylor, 66, of Charleston, was one of about 15 who participated in the midday protest held at the Five Points fountain.

Chief among the concerns of the group was President Barack Obama’s signing of an executive order earlier this week to impose new, stricter sanctions on Iran and its central bank.

A former combat medic who had served in Vietnam, Taylor said he thought Americans were “sick of war.”