IN SPORTS: Lady Barons to face CN in 3A state tourney
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Step Off! Performers from 3 states will compete in the 5th annual Lemira Golden Steppers show
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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 2017
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Family, puppy survive blaze Council
approves parkway rezoning BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com
SAMMY WAY / THE SUMTER ITEM
Flames engulf a home at 104 Church St. on Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning fire guts Victorian-era Church Street home BY ADRIENNE SARVIS adrienne@theitem.com After thinking everything was lost during a house fire at 104 Church St. on Tuesday morning, firefighters rescued a puppy from the scene. Sumter Fire Department Battalion Chief Joey Duggan said the call for the fire came in at 10:07 a.m. and 26 firefighters from five stations — Headquarters, Alice Drive, Manning Road, Thomas Sumter and Stadium Road — responded. He said there was heavy fire and smoke coming from the front of the house when firefighters arrived. It took about 45 minutes to get the fire under control, he said. Duggan said firefighters were able to quickly push the fire back in order to get
inside the structure to put out more flames. He said one resident was inside the house when the fire started and went to a neighbor’s house where the call to fire dispatch was made. Duggan said the family of four, two adults and two children, had four pets inside the house at the time of the fire. Three cats were lost in the fire, but a puppy was saved, he said. There is an estimated $350,000 in damage caused to the structure and approximately $100,000 in contents lost, he said. Duggan said a fire investigator was called to the scene to find an area of origin for the fire and possibly determine the cause. He said there was no reason to think the fire was suspicious.
RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM
Neighbor Cindy Macias clutches a puppy saved from a house fire by the Sumter Fire Department on Tuesday. Macias lives next door to the home that burned at 104 Church St. and was able to reunite the puppy with the homeowner.
Sumter City Council approved an ordinance to allow multi-family apartments on the south side of Patriot Parkway near Deschamps Road at Tuesday’s regular meeting. Some residents of the area led a coordinated campaign against the proposal, and members of the public who attended the meeting were asked by opponents to hold up signs during council’s vote urging council to vote against the ordinance. Martin Graf, an Air Force retiree, was one of the people passing out signs. Graf said he and other area residents were promised the area would remain agricultural and single dwellings when he purchased a house there. Members of council pointed out they could find no record of any such promises and that the city would not have been involved in any agreement when that area was still in Sumter County. Councilman David Merchant said he reached out to former councilmen and was told no such promises were made. “City council could not make a promise outside city limits,” he said. Merchant said the only policy documents he found concerning the area show a 50foot landscaping buffer which ends at Lisbon Drive, east of the proposed zoning change. Opponents of the rezoning had also argued development of the property would encroach on Shaw Air Force Base. Councilman Robert Galiano said he had spoken with several people at the base, and none said it would be a problem. In response to a request from council, Planning Director George McGregor showed
SEE COUNCIL, PAGE A5
Trump targets more immigrants for possible deportation BY ALICIA A. CALDWELL The Associated Press WASHINGTON — Many more people living in the United States illegally could face rapid deportation — including people simply arrested for traffic violations — under a sweeping rewrite of U.S. immigration enforcement policies announced Tuesday by the Trump administration. Any immigrant who is in the country illegally and is charged or convicted of any offense, or even suspected of a crime, will now be an enforcement priority, according to Homeland Security Depart-
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ment memos signed by Secretary John Kelly. That could include people arrested for shoplifting or minor offenses. The Trump administration memos replace more narrow guidance focusing on immigrants who have been convicted of serious crimes, are considered threats to national security or are recent border crossers. Under the Obama administration guidance, immigrants whose only violation was being in the country illegally were generally left alone. Those immigrants fall into two categories: those who crossed the border without
permission and those who overstayed their visas. Crossing the border illegally is a criminal offense, and the new memos make clear that those who have done so are included in the broad list of enforcement priorities. Overstaying a visa is a civil, not criminal, offense. Those who do so are not specifically included in the priority list but, under the memos, they are still more likely to face deportation than they had been before. The new enforcement documents are the latest efforts by
SEE ICE, PAGE A5
DEATHS, B5 Miles James Kepner Cary M. Lee Jr. James B. Snow William B. Ford Sarah Jane G. Smith
Alice H. Cutter Dayton J. Walker Javion Devonta Williams Edith B. Browning
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
An arrest is made earlier this month during a targeted enforcement operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement aimed at immigration fugitives, re-entrants and at-large criminal aliens in Los Angeles.
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3 SECTIONS, 18 PAGES VOL. 122, NO. 93
Mostly cloudy and warmer today with chance of showers; tonight, cloudy and mild. HIGH 76, LOW 55
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