IN SPORTS: Clemson falls short against Duke in ACC Men’s Tournament B1 THE CLARENDON SUN
State considering slot limit for striped bass A6 THURSDAY, MARCH 9, 2017
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Governor addresses Chamber Henry McMaster keynotes annual Legislative Day BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com COLUMBIA — Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce’s annual Legislative Day in Columbia on Wednesday was very different from previous years. Instead of the luncheon format of past years, the event included a tour of the General Assembly Building; an afternoon session with speakers, including South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster; and an evening reception. Gov. McMaster used his appearance to laud the state of South Carolina. “South Carolina is the friendliest state with the most assets,” he said, listing such things as the Port of Charleston and two multi-modal inland ports as being major economic engines. He also praised the state’s research universities, particularly for their ability to cooperate with each other and the private sector. “Collaboration is where things really happen,” he said. “Public-private partnerships will take us to that knowledge economy and beyond.” He said the Palmetto State is blessed with the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other. “The main thing we have is our people,” McMaster said, and he talked about the potential the state has shown since the very first European settlers arrived.
PHOTOS BY RICK CARPENTER / THE SUMTER ITEM
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster tells the Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce Legislative Day crowd that the Boeing plant’s workers who rejected a union vote recently continues to make the state an attractive place to do business.
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Summerton plant sees more activity
DNA links man convicted in 4 Sumter murders to 1987 Richland killing
BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com
BY TEDDY KULMALA AND JANE MOON DAIL The State
A company that announced it was locating a plant near Summerton has purchased and is renovating the former Federal Mogul Building at 9104 Alex Harvin Highway, near Summerton. Clarendon Economic Development Director George Kosinski said ProBrass Inc., a company which manufactures brass rifle cartridges, has been renovating and making roof repairs to the building and is awaiting the arrival of production equipment from Illinois. Kosinski said the company has already hired six people at the facility and is advertising 10 production positions through SCWorks. A listing at www.scworks.org matching Kosinski’s description listed production jobs at $16 an hour. “There are a lot of moving pieces going on,” Kosinski said. The company is being started up by two military veterans from Rhode Island and Illinois: CEO Christopher Moe and Chief Operating Officer Tim Baxter, according to a December 2016 report. Kosinski said the company intends to employ as many as
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RICHLAND COUNTY — Thirty years after Patricia Ann Green’s lifeless body was found in a roadside ditch, technology caught up and helped identify her killer, who is serving life sentences for the murders of four other women in Sumter County. Green’s body was found off the Sumter Highway in Hopkins the morning of May 10, 1987, in what Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott called a
“very gruesome scene.” The 34-year-old mother of three had been shot in the face with a shotgun at close range, according to The State newspaper archives. Two truckers leaving Columbia spotted her body in the ditch about a quarter-mile JOHNSON from the entrance of McEntire Joint National Guard Base near Eastover. Lott said there were no
leads on the case and it ran cold. Within the past month, though, he said, investigators with the department’s cold case unit reviewed the case and submitted DNA evidence from the crime scene for analysis. “Our DNA people matched up the DNA found at the crime scene that day to Phillip Johnson, of Sumter,” Lott said. Johnson’s DNA was found on Green’s clothing, he said.
‘JUST A COLD-BLOODED KILLER’ Johnson, 53, was arrest-
ed in 1988 and later convicted in the murders of four women in Sumter County, the sheriff said. Detectives learned Johnson killed two women in Sumter County before Green’s shooting, and another two after. The four Sumter County murders happened in close proximity to each other. Johnson is serving four life sentences in the state prison system and is currently housed at Kirkland
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Staggers named Morris College interim president FROM STAFF REPORTS Morris College Board of Trustees has named Leroy Staggers, academic dean at the college, as interim president, effective July 1, as president Luns C. Richardson intends to retire on June 30. Richardson, South Carolina’s longest sitting college president and United Negro College Fund’s longest member president, informed the board of trustees of his decision to retire as the president during a regular meeting on Oct. 29, 2016. He will conclude his 43-year career
with Morris College at 5 p.m. on June 30 according to a news release from the college. Staggers, a Salters native and a graduate of C.E. Murray High School in Greelyville, earned an undergraduate degree from Voorhees College and earned both a master’s and a doctorate degree from Clark Atlanta UniSTAGGERS versity in Atlanta, Georgia. According to a news release from the college, Staggers, who began
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working at Morris College in 1993, has dedicated nearly 24 years to the institution and has served 16 years as the academic dean. Through his current position, Staggers is a prominent member of Richardson’s cabinet and is responsible for the supervision of all academic programs, full-time and part-time faculty members as well as all academic support instructional programs. Staggers also works closely with Richardson on all aspects of Morris College’s reaffirmation of accreditation efforts,
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