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COLUMBIA S.C. candidate: Take down Confederate flag
South Carolina should remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds if it wants to grow its economy, a Democrat running for governor said Thursday.
"The Confederate Flag debate continues to hold our state back. We are not going to compete in a 21st century economy by prolonging 19th century arguments," Charleston lawyer Mullins McLeod said in a news release. "By agreeing to move past this old argument once and for all, we will be telling the world that South Carolina is ready to lead again."
The flag as at a monument to Confederate war dead at the Capitol already has been a topic in the 2010 race. Republican candidates in their first debate in September closed the door to removing the banner.
"We settled this issue years ago on a bipartisan and biracial basis, and we're moving forward to tackle the real problems facing South Carolina," said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston. McConnell is the flag's staunchest defender in the Senate. He helped shape the 2000 compromise that moved it from the Statehouse dome to the monument. Associated Press
Meck briefs
Charlotte
Time Warner Cable on Thursday kicked off a philanthropic effort that will spend $11 million to help N.C. students improve their science, math, engineering and technology skills.
The effort, called Connect a Million Minds, is part of a larger national effort by the cable company to introduce students to enriching activities such as the Hornet's Nest Girl Scouts Council's forensics lab and mobile technology classroom.
Time Warner officials say 80 percent of jobs in the next decade will require skills in science, math, engineering or technology. Eric Frazier
Beverly Woods Elementary has been recognized as a "National School of Character" for efforts to include students with disabilities and service projects addressing hunger and homelessness.
The Character Education Partnership honored 10 schools nationwide at its recent annual conference. Beverly Woods, the only one from the Carolinas, was lauded for diversity training that starts in kindergarten and helps all students appreciate those with special needs. Academic excellence and community service were also part of the recognition. Ann Doss Helms
Regional briefs
North Carolina
Protective buffers around N.C. trout waters must be respected, a state appeals court ruled this week, said the Southern Environmental Law Center in Chapel Hill.
The N.C. Court of Appeals ruled in a case over a golf course built at Mountain Air Country Club in Yancey County, which the law center said reshaped streams to accommodate fairways and greens.
The court's decision restores protection for thousands of miles of trout streams, the law center said, and clarifies how far regulators can go in allowing developers to remove streamside vegetation and enclose streams in pipes. Trout require cold, clear water and are especially vulnerable to development disturbance.
"The court's decision gives the state clear guidance on how to handle future requests from developers to disturb land around trout streams," said law center attorney Julie Youngman. Bruce Henderson
Hendersonville
A 61-year-old Hendersonville man faces up to 40 years in prison after a federal jury convicted him Wednesday on child pornography charges.
Albert Charles Burgess had been charged with possessing and receiving child pornography. Federal officials have not set a sentencing date for Burgess.
A federal indictment charged Burgess with sending money overseas to receive child porn over the Internet. During a March 2008 search of Burgess' house, authorities found 891 videos and 4,735 images of child pornography at Burgess' house, according to the indictment. Staff reports
South Carolina
Authorities say a severely overweight S.C. South Carolina man sat down in his recliner in March and stayed there for eight months until shortly before his death this week.
Greenwood County deputies say Tillmon Webb weighed about 800 pounds when he died Wednesday at a hospital a few hours after firefighters had to cut him from the chair.
His wife says the 33-year-old former preacher didn't move from his medical recliner at their home 70 miles west of Columbia after injuring his knee in March. She says she cleaned the chair several times a day. Webb's wife, Ada, says he didn't want help because he was ready to go to heaven and see Jesus. She says he weighed closer to 500 pounds.
Associated Press
Police digest
Mecklenburg County
A pedestrian was struck and killed Thursday evening in University City, police said.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said the victim was walking in the middle of North Tryon Street at about 8:20 p.m. when the crash happened.
That stretch of North Tryon is north of I-485, just short of where the road becomes Concord Parkway near Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord.
There are no crosswalks near where the accident occurred and the cause of the crash is still under investigation, police said. Police haven't released the victim's identity. Ely Portillo
Iredell County
Iredell County authorities say they are looking for a Charlotte man in connection with a string of cases last month near Mooresville in which vehicles were broken into or stolen.
Two Charlotte men already have been arrested, deputies say.
Warrants have been issued for Xavier Lindsay, who faces 14 charges of breaking and entering a motor vehicle and larceny of a motor vehicle, deputies say. Already charged and arrested in the case were Shawn Cody Lee Hanton and Nasheed Shawntary Cureton.
Deputies say the crimes happened Oct. 14 near Langtree Road. They say credit cards stolen from two victims were used to buy gas, cigarettes and movie tickets in the Charlotte area. One stolen vehicle was recovered Oct. 27 by Davidson police after it was left abandoned there, according to Iredell County Sheriff Phil Redmond.
Cureton and Hanton were arrested by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police Nov. 10 after they ran from a vehicle that had been reported stolen in Iredell County, Redmond said. Steve Lyttle
Mooresville
The deaths of a husband and wife last month in Mooresville have been ruled a murder-suicide, the Iredell County Sheriff's Office says.
Capt. Darren Campbell of the sheriff's office said detectives have determined that Douglas Alan Thomas Sr., 57, shot and killed his wife, Linda, 57, and then turned the gun on himself. He also shot and wounded their two sons, Christian Edward Thomas, 25, and Douglas Alan Thomas Jr., 28. The sons were hospitalized but are recovering.
Steve Lyttle
