Naked wanderer on LSD found in state forest
An unidentified man was found in the Harbison State Forest Sunday evening after he had taken LSD and stripped off his clothes due to an unsavory reaction from the drug, The State reported.
After recovering the man’s clothing in the Broad River, officials said they believed him to have drowned and assembled a dive team to search the waters the next morning. However, the man found his way onto the property of the state Department of Corrections, where he was presented with a blanket and then taken to Palmetto Richland Hospital, The State reported.
The search for the lost man entailed costly resources including a helicopter, a dog team and some 40 law enforcement officers from multiple state and local agencies, according to The State.
The naked wanderer was accompanied by three other unidentified men, also under the influence of LSD.
State Department of Forestry spokesman Scott Hawkins told The State officials will be drawing up warrants charging all four men with taking illegal substances in a state forest.
— Hannah Jeffrey, Staff Writer
Budget cuts cause delayed flight arrivals
Four flights coming into Columbia Metropolitan Airport were delayed Monday morning, but not due to inclement weather.
Instead, mandatory federal budget cuts were the culprit behind passengers arriving more than two hours late to Columbia from New York and Washington, D.C., The State reported.
Because of across-the-board federal spending cuts, agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration are being forced to limit spending. And thanks to limited spending, many airline passengers can expect delays at the expense of their convenience, as thousands of FAA employees’ work schedules will be cut down.
All 47,000 FAA employees, including 15,000 air traffic controllers, will lose one day of work every other week, The State reported.
In a letter to the FAA, the Global Business Travel Association said the nation’s economy will “pay a very steep price that significantly outstrips savings produced by furloughs.”
“If these disruptions unfold as predicted, business travelers will stay home, severely impacting not only the travel industry but the economy overall,” the letter read, according to The State.
— Hannah Jeffrey, Staff Writer
Colbert Busch leads Sanford in poll
In the highly publicized race to fill the state’s 1st Congressional District seat, Democratic nominee Elizabeth Colbert Busch leads her Republican opponent, former Gov. Mark Sanford, by nine points in a recent poll, WIS reported.
Colbert Busch is favored by 50 percent of respondents in the poll by North Carolina–based Public Policy Polling, trailed by Sanford’s 41 percent.
“Elizabeth Colbert Busch is now looking like a clear favorite in the special election,” Public Policy Polling President Dean Debnam told WIS. “The only question is whether an extremely unpopular Sanford can find some way to make voters like her even less than him in the next two weeks.”
Independent voters favor Colbert Busch by 16 percent in the poll, and 19 percent of Republicans also favor her over their party’s candidate, according to WIS.
Of those polled 56 said they view Sanford unfavorably, according to WIS. Sanford’s ex-wife recently accused him of trespassing at her home.
Voting for the 1st District seat will take place May 7.
— Sarah Ellis, Assistant News Editor