Business Notebook

South Carolina parole officials on Wednesday again turned down an early release request from a former executive of bankrupt financial firm HomeGold.

A panel rejected Ronnie Sheppard’s fifth and final bid for parole. He’s expected to be released late next year. Attorneys argued the 56-year-old Sheppard needs medical care outside of prison because of heart troubles.

Sheppard has served more than eight years of a 20-year sentence for securities fraud, conspiracy and other crimes after the 2003 collapse of HomeGold and its subsidiary Carolina Investors. More than 8,000 investors lost $275 million in one of the biggest bankruptcies in state history after struggling HomeGold pulled money from its recently purchased Carolina Investors unit to stay afloat.

Five other executives pleaded guilty or were convicted. All have been released.

MPW Industrial Services, which provides industrial cleaning and environmental management services, is building a $10 million industrial water regeneration plant in Andrews.

The plant is expected to create 32 new jobs in the Georgetown County. MPW has bought a building owned by Georgetown County and will refit it to suit their needs, the company said.

The Coordinating Council for Economic Development approved a $200,000 grant to the county to help with the costs of real property improvements.

China is a long way from Greece and the high-profile debt troubles of the eurozone, but its stocks have been taking a far worse beating in recent days.

Despite increasingly desperate measures by the Chinese government to halt the slide, shares listed on China’s main stock exchange Wednesday in Shanghai fell nearly 6 percent, piling on losses that have plunged the market by about a third since mid-June.

The growing investor panic over Chinese stocks shook confidence in Beijing’s ability to manage its slowing economy and threatened to cause problems for overseas markets, including America’s.

IN BRIEF

▪  Greece on Wednesday requested a new three-year rescue program from its European partners and rushes to complete a detailed plan of economic reforms in time to avoid the country’s descent into financial chaos.

From Staff and Wire Reports.