Flu spreading again in SC after winter peak
Watch out — the flu’s back.
While the most common strain of the flu peaked in December, a second strain is now on the rise in South Carolina, The Post and Courier reported.
During the most recent week for which data is available, March 10 to 16, 1,954 people tested positive for the less common “influenza B,” versus 422 with “influenza A.”
The symptoms for the two are very similar.
According to The Post and Courier, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control expects this year’s flu season to be categorized as “moderately severe.”
—Thad Moore, News Editor
Police seize $75,000 of pot in West Columbia
A West Columbia man was arrested Wednesday after he allegedly grew $75,000 of marijuana in a house, The State reported.
Theodore James Prosalenti, 32, is charged with manufacturing and possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute.
Officers found 73 plants, dried marijuana in jars, a 9-mm Springfield XD handgun and $1,752 in a case inside the Rainbow Circle home, according to The State.
They also found separate lighting, ventilation and climate control systems.
Police were tipped off that Prosalenti was growing marijuana in his house and started investigating the operation undercover about two months ago, The State reported.
—Thad Moore, News Editor
Spartanburg woman arrested for slapping child
A Spartanburg mother was arrested Wednesday after she allegedly walked into a middle school and slapped a young boy in the face, The Associated Press reported.
Tyshekka Collier was coming to pick up her son, who was being suspended from Fairforest Middle School, and mistook another boy in the office for him, according to AP. The boy she slapped was sick and waiting to be picked up.
Principal Ty Dawkins told police that after Collier realized she’d hit the wrong boy, she apologized. Then, she walked over to her son and knocked him down.
She was charged with disturbing school and assault and battery, AP reported, and her three children are in protective custody.
—Sydney Patterson, Managing Editor