Sheriffs to hold meeting after 4 lawmen indicted
There are 46 sheriffs in South Carolina, and in the last three years, five of them have been arrested.
So in April, sheriffs plan to meet in Columbia to talk about what they can do to keep out of trouble, the Associated Press reported.
The most recent arrest came last week when Sam Parker, Chesterfield County’s sheriff, was indicted on six misdemeanor charges.
It was the latest in a string of incidents that began in May 2010 after more than a decade without having a sheriff indicted, the AP reported.
Three of the four indictments have involved misuse of inmate labor.
— Thad Moore, News Editor
Authorities searching for missing inmate
The state Department of Corrections is looking for an inmate at a minimum security prison who went missing Sunday.
The State reported that Maurice Vandell Bailey, 25, was last seen at his work-release site, a Miyo’s restaurant on Harbison Boulevard. He was two years into a five-year sentence for an armed robbery in Newberry County.
Bailey would have been eligible for parole in February 2014 and was being held at the Campbell Pre-Release Center on Broad River Road. He didn’t show up at a 7 p.m. headcount.
According to The State, Bailey is a 6-foot-1-inch black male who weighs 185 pounds and was last seen wearing a tan prison uniform.
— Thad Moore, News Editor
ETV faces layoffs after federal budget cuts
Mandatory federal cuts could force the state’s ETV to cut back and lay workers off, The State reported.
ETV President Linda O’Bryon told a state Senate panel that she wasn’t sure how many jobs would be cut or programs dropped because of the so-called “sequester” budget cuts, but she said they would be “significant.”
ETV isn’t new to budget cuts and layoffs. It now employs 130 workers, down from 225 in 2008, and it gets $9 million from the state, down from $16.5 million in 2008, according to The State.
Because of the across-the-board mandatory cuts in federal government, ETV will lose $588,000.
— Thad Moore, News Editor