vehicle in Rembert Highway patrol and Sumter sheriff ’s office investigating BY KAYLA ROBINS kayla@theitem.com A 36-year-old Pinewood man was found dead on Camp Mac Boykin Road on Saturday re- SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 TUESDAY, OCTOBERmorning 15, 2019after I SERVING portedly being run over by a vehicle that fled the scene. James Antonio Gooden died as a result of a pedestrian-versus-vehicle wreck in the Rimini area of Sumter County in which the vehicle fled, according to Sumter County Coroner Robbie Baker. His body was found before 9 a.m. Saturday by hunters, and Baker pronounced him dead about 8:50 a.m., according to Adrienne Sarvis, public information officer for the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office. His family has been notified, and an autopsy is scheduled for today at MUSC in Charleston, according to Baker. The sheriff’s office and South Carolina Highway Patrol are investigating the incident.
Court seems ready to require unanimous juries in states BY MARK SHERMAN The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court began a potentially contentious election-year term Monday in seeming general agreement that juries in state criminal trials must be unanimous to convict a defendant. The justices took up a quirk of constitutional law, a 47-year-old ruling that requires unanimity in federal but not state trials. Earlier in the day, the court also wrestled with whether states must allow criminal defendants to plead insanity. The one minor surprise when the justices took the bench just after 10 o’clock was the absence of Justice Clarence Thomas. The 71-year-old Thomas was at home, likely with the flu, the court said. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was in
SEE COURT, PAGE A6
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PHOTOS BY KAYLA ROBINS / THE
Thousands of students, their parents and Sumter-area employers and volunteers attended the second eSTEAM Festiva downtown Sumter on Saturday. The event gave students the opportunity to learn through hands-on activities and boo
‘You don’t know what you don’t know. Some of these kids are absolutely amazed because they don’t always think about how things are made.’
Thousands enjoy 2nd eSTEAM Festival in downtown Sumter fo kid-friendly science, art, math, t
ERIKA WILLIAMS
thing reaching new heights Sat-
Manager of communications,
urday in downtown Sumter.
strategic initiatives for Sumter
Thompson Construction’s lift, which employee volunteers used to demonstrate safety and job site equipment by harnessing kids and
BY KAYLA ROBINS kayla@theitem.com
A
scissor lift rising to give children a different point of view was not the only
Economic Development, TheLINK
Expert: No more 90-degree days expected Midlands has already set high-temp record for fall; drought conditions persist BY BRUCE MILLS bruce@theitem.com The Midlands has already broken a record for the number of fall days at or above 90 degrees, but the tally
isn’t likely to increase any more. That was the good news, one could say, as part of a mixed report and outlook for Sumter and the Midlands from National Weather Service Columbia Meteorologist Leonard Vaughan, who spoke Monday. Since Sept. 1 — which is considered the start of the three-month “Meteorological Fall” season by the weather service
— through Sunday, the Midlands had 27 days of daily high temps reaching 90 or higher, Vaughan said. That was out of a total of 36 days. The 27th day of 90-and-above temps was Friday, when it reached 100 degrees at both Shaw Air Force Base in Sumter and the Columbia Metropolitan Airport, according to the weather service. The previous record for steamyhot fall days in the Midlands reaching at least 90 was 25 and occurred two SEE FALL, PAGE A6
From left to right: Hubert Duvall Osteen Sr., Hubert Graham Osteen and Noah Graham Osteen
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DEATHS, B3 and B4 Beverly Jean Williams Phillips Harvey L. Washington Rachel Ligon Hargrove Hilde K. Eldridge Roy David McMickell Betty Moore Fralick Jeanette Kolb Lowder
Samuel Lee Reardon Barbara Jean Pugh Elliott Donald Ray Melton Ruth Lewis Vickie Lynn Becker Plemons James Antonio Gooden
letting them “ride” it, showe the 69 other businesses, scho dustries and organizations s along South Main Street in f Central Carolina Technical C for the second-annual eSTEA tival. The event offered child all ages the chance to both p learn at booths featuring ha activities centered around ST and the arts. “Education is the foundati
SEE eSTEAM
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WEATHER, A8
INSIDE
CLOUDY BUT HUMID
2 SECTIONS, 14 PAGE VOL. 124, NO. 145
Mainly cloudy and humid today; rather cloudy tonight HIGH 81, LOW 62
Classifieds B6 Comics A5 Opinion A7
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CELEBRATING 125 YEARS OF THE ITEM
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019
CELEBRATING 125 YEARS OF THE ITEM
THE SUMTER ITEM
THE SUMTER ITEM
1850
1855
1861
Noah Graham Osteen dies.
The Sumter Item relocates to Magnolia Street from West Liberty Street.
1965
Hubert Duvall Osteen Jr. named editor.
1972
1953
A fire causes $250,000 in damage, destroying the newsroom, display and classified advertising departments, circulation department, business department and the photographic department. The press and the composing room, which housed the linotype machines and other heavy machines, were spared. The paper was printed in Florence, having never missed an edition. Hubert Duvall Osteen Sr. dies and is succeeded as chairman of the company by his widow, Margaret Weeks Osteen, until her death in 1966.
1985 Hubert Duvall Osteen Jr. named publisher. Hubert “Graham” Graham Osteen II, Hubert Duvall Osteen Jr.’s oldest son, joins The Item, eventually becoming executive editor.
Noah Graham Osteen, 12, obtains a five-year apprenticeship as printers’ devil at The Sumter Watchman. He earned board and clothes and 25 cents a week.
1936
1946
1931
Hubert Graham Osteen retires, retaining the title of president of Osteen Publishing Co. Inc. until his death in 1955.
Jack Osteen named publisher of The Sumter Item.
1987
The Watchman and Southron is absorbed by The Sumter Daily Item.
The Osteens buy the Las Cruces Bulletin, a New Mexico weekly.
2005
1997
Hubert Graham Osteen’s son, Hubert Duvall Osteen Sr., joined his father in running the newspaper.
2011
The Osteen brothers buy three Jacksonville, Florida, area papers.
Hubert Graham Osteen II becomes editor and publisher of The Hartsville Messenger, a bi-weekly purchased by Osteen Publishing Co. in 1995. His brothers, Kyle Brown Osteen and John “Jack” Duvall Osteen, also joined the family business, Kyle as advertising director of The Item and Jack as publisher of The Islander, a weekly that covers the Sea Islands south of Charleston, bought by the Osteens in 1997.
The Horry Dispatch suspends operations because of the Civil War.
Osteen becomes sole owner of The Watchman, successor of The Black River Watchman, and merges it with The True Southron, forming The Watchman and Southron.
1924
Osteen buys a half-interest in the Sumter News with H.L. Darr.
1866
1881
Oct. 15, 1894
1873
The Sumter Daily Item is founded in the same offices as The Watchman and Southron by Osteen’s son, Hubert Graham Osteen. He had worked for his father from 1891-1894.
Hubert “Hugh” Graham Osteen III joins the company, marking the sixth generation in the family business.
2012
1862
Osteen runs the Horry Dispatch at Conway, the first newspaper in Horry County.
The Black River Watchman is founded.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019
William Vincent “Vince” Johnson Jr. named fifth publisher of The Sumter Item, marking the first time in 123 years someone outside of the Osteen family is running the paper.
The paper converts from a six-day to five-day publication.
Sept. 2017
2015
2013
2014 The Osteens buy Gulf Coast Newspapers LLC, which owns five community papers in Alabama. The Item changes its name to The Sumter Item and launches a redesign.
Osteen and his partners change the name of the News to the True Southron.
2016 The Sumter Item moves from 20 Magnolia St. to its current location at 36 W. Liberty St.
Feb. 2018 The Sumter Item launches Sumter Today, a Monday-Friday digital-only news show produced by the paper’s new video department, Studio Sumter.
Sources: The Sumter Item and Palmetto Press: The History of South Carolina’s Newspapers and Press Association, a publication of the S.C. Press Association
March 2019 “Editor and Publisher,” the industry’s premier publication, names The Sumter Item in its annual “10 Newspapers That Do It Right” list, largely for its innovation in Sumter Today and Studio Sumter.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019
CELEBRATING 125 YEARS OF THE ITEM
THE SUMTER ITEM
Continental Tire congratulates The Sumter Item on 125 years!
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Continental Tire Sumter Plant Home of driven individuals 1805 Highway 521 S Sumter, SC 29153