Man pleads guilty to letting dogs attack bear
A Travelers Rest man has pleaded guilty to mistreating animals after allowing hunting dogs to repeatedly attack and bite a captive bear, The State reported.
James Robert Grumbles, 65, took a plea deal that allowed him to plead guilty to a misdemeanor instead of a felony if he gave up his three black bears. The bears will be sent to live on a wildlife preserve in Colorado. They are among seven other captive bears used for hunting dog competitions in South Carolina, according to the state Department of Natural Resources.
The plea is the result of a state investigation of the treatment and illegal hunting of black bears in South Carolina’s mountains. In the past four weeks, 12 people have been charged with 50 offenses. These have included killing a mother bear and her cubs and killing “undersized” bears.
Capt. Robert McCullough of the DNR said the ongoing investigation will likely reach further than it already has.
Unknown intruder staring at sleeping women
A man has been breaking into Dentsville women’s apartments and staring at them as they sleep, The State reported.
The man has not sexually assaulted any of the women, but is still considered “extremely dangerous,” according to Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott.
In all four cases, the man has stood in women’s rooms until they wake up and notice someone is in the room. All of the break-ins occurred between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m. between Sept. 2 and Sept. 10.
Lott said that the man is a “serious threat” to women in the area.
“You don’t know what he is capable of doing,” Lott said.
Richland County Sheriff’s deputies are beginning to ramp up efforts to catch the man. Details on these efforts were not disclosed in order not to inform the intruder.
“We are doing everything possible,” Lott said.
The man is described as black male between 5 foot 8 inches and 6 feet tall.
The State columnist no longer covering Gamecocks
The State’s longtime sports columnist Ron Morris is no longer writing about Gamecocks football, media blogger Jim Romenesko reported.
This comes after two separate incidents of head football coach Steve Spurrier refusing to answer reporters’ questions, reportedly because of Morris. The first incident took place in 2011; he criticized Morris in a press conference without explicitly naming him and later offered to do one-on-one interviews with television and print reporters, but not with Morris.
In 2012, he announced at a press conference he would not take any questions and quickly left. Sports Talk Radio Network reported at the time that Spurrier was afraid Morris was planting questions with other reporters in the room.
Morris has recently written multiple columns concerning Clemson’s football program.
“Our plans and staffing will evolve,” The State said in a release to Romenesko. “Our coverage decisions are shaped by internal factors and available resources.”