Taylor Swift to return to Colonial Life Arena
Get ready to pick out some cowboy boots, a sparkly dress and your worst ex-boyfriend story: Taylor Swift is coming to town.
Swift, along with opening act Ed Sheeran, will perform at USC’s Colonial Life Arena on March 23 on her RED Tour, currently numbering more than 60 shows in the U.S. and Canada between March and September.
Swift most recently visited Columbia in November 2011. Her show, then featuring opener Needtobreathe, sold out the Colonial Life Arena.
Tickets will be available starting Feb. 1 at 10 a.m. through LMCtix.com and at the Lexington Medical Center Box Office, Colonial Life Arena and the Columbia Play It Again Sports Store. Tickets can also be purchased by phone at 1-855-4-LMC-TIX.
— Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor
Lattimore hopes to play sooner than expected
While watching practice at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala., on Tuesday, former South Carolina running back Marcus Lattimore said he expects to be ready to play at the start of the 2013 NFL season.
After a devastating knee injury while playing against Tennessee in October, Lattimore and his doctors originally predicted it would take a year to a year-and-a-half for his injuries to heal and for him to be able to play in the NFL.
USA Today reports that he expects to be able to jog on land in two weeks.
The junior announced in December that he would enter the NFL draft, nearly two months after the injury that many thought could end his career.
— Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor
Dreher teacher fired over student sex charges
An honors English teacher was fired from Columbia’s Dreher High School after being arrested earlier this month for allegedly having sex with a 17-year-old student, according to The State.
Until having her contract voided by the Richland 1 school board on Tuesday, Kinsley Wentzky, 34, had been on paid administrative leave. She is being charged with sexual battery and had allegedly been having sex with an underage male student in her home since May 2012.
One of 18 teachers in the past two years who have been disciplined for sexual relationships with students, Wentzky had her teaching certificate suspended by the South Carolina Department of Education on Jan. 9, four days after her arrest.
— Amanda Coyne, Assistant News Editor