Tuesday, Dec. 02, 2008

S.C. official asks for special budget session

Comptroller General Richard Eckstrom has asked Gov. Mark Sanford to consider recalling the Legislature to session to quickly balance the state budget.

In a letter, Eckstrom said quickly balancing the budget — necessary after state economists reduced revenue estimates last month — quickly was crucial to the state finances. Eckstrom said the budget should be balanced as soon after state economists meet on Dec. 10.

If the State Budget and Control Board cannot meet to issue across-the-board cuts, Eckstrom wrote, then Sanford should think about calling the Legislature into session. Lawmakers are scheduled to return in January.

• Donate a toy and get surplus property deals

Anyone donating a toy to Toys for Tots could get a deal on surplus state property in South Carolina.

Officials at the S.C. Surplus Property Office say a customer who donates at least $50 in toys can buy a surplus laptop computer for $25. The computers usually sell for $200.

A $75 toy donation at the surplus office in West Columbia will get a $300 discount on automobiles. On items like office equipment and furniture, a $15 toy gets a 25 percent discount; a $25 toy gets a 50 percent; and a $50 toy gets a 70 percent discount.

Officials say customers just need to bring the toy and a receipt to get the deals, which run through Dec. 12.

GREENVILLE

• Anchor was sexually assaulted, parents say

A television anchorwoman killed in her home had been sexually assaulted and beaten so badly in a suspected burglary that her jaw shattered and she broke a hand while trying to fend off her attacker’s blows, her parents said Monday.

“This monster stole my daughter’s innocence,” said Patti Cannady, the mother of Anne Pressly, on NBC’s “Today.” “He took her life. He took her identity. He took our lives.”

Police Lt. Terry Hastings did not dispute her remarks and those of her husband, Guy, but declined to offer specifics about the attack on Pressly, who was originally from Greenville. Police and prosecutors have refused to say whether Pressly, 26, was sexually assaulted during the Oct. 20 attack in Little Rock.

“A lot of those details, we want the jury to hear those first,” Hastings said.

The 26-year-old anchorwoman for KATV died Oct. 25. An arrest warrant used to pick up Curtis Lavelle Vance, 28, was released Monday but doesn’t mention a sexual assault.

Vance has been assigned three public defenders, who began talking with him Monday afternoon. He remains in jail without bond and has yet to enter a plea in the Pressly slaying.

Patti Cannady said she found her daughter in bed, bloody and beaten, after she didn’t answer a wake-up call. She said every bone in her daughter’s face had been broken.

“Her jaw pulverized so badly that the bone had come out of it. I actually thought that her throat, it possibly had been cut, but that was possibly the first knockout punch. Her entire skull had numerous fractures from which she suffered a massive stroke.”

• Deputies investigate shooting by FBI agent

Greenville County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the shooting of a man by an FBI agent at her home in Fountain Inn.

Master Deputy Michael Hildebrand said the agent scuffled with a man Friday night before shooting him in the buttocks.

Hildebrand said deputies were called to the agent’s home and found 60-year-old Ronnie William Pennington in the driveway. Warrants state Pennington has been charged with peeping and aggravated assault and battery. It was unclear if he had an attorney.

Hildebrand would not release the agent’s name and said the shooting appeared to be justified.

First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald expects the FBI to conduct an internal investigation. Special Agent Paul Jacobs of Greenville’s FBI office would not discuss the shooting.

CHARLESTON

• First day of federal ID use goes well at port

Things went smoothly on the first day that new federal identification cards were required at the Port of Charleston.

The South Carolina State Ports Authority said that beginning Monday, truck drivers, port workers, longshoremen and others working at the ports were required to have a new federal Transportation Worker Identification Credential.

Ports spokesman Byron Miller said the federal law affected thousands of workers and only a handful showed up Monday without new ID cards.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security reports more than 5,300 cards are active for those who work in Charleston.

• Marine killed in Iraq was Citadel graduate

A Marine killed recently in Iraq was a graduate of The Citadel, the college is reporting.

Capt. Warren A. Frank was killed in action Nov. 25 while distributing humanitarian aid in the Ninewa province of Iraq, according to the college.

Frank, 26, was a native of Cincinnati and graduated from The Citadel in 2004.

He was assigned to the 5th Air Naval Gunfire Liasion Company, III Marine Expeditionary Force in Okinawa, Japan, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.

His death was announced by the department Wednesday.

GEORGETOWN

• City seeking grants to clear dumped boats

Georgetown officials plan to ask for more money to remove abandoned boats from waterways around the city.

City Councilman Paige Sawyer told The Sun News of Myrtle Beach a previous $50,000 grant wasn’t enough to get rid of all the decrepit vessels, and more boats have been abandoned since then.

Officials say some boat owners decide to abandon their vessels because it can be expensive to dispose of them properly.

Some of the boats are particular eyesores because they can be seen from the Georgetown Harborwalk.

Authorities also are monitoring waterways more closely to try to catch owners before they can dump their boats.

Contributing: Staff writer John O’Connor and The Associated Press