IN SPORTS: Young Wilson Hall basketball teams building experience B1 PANORAMA
Crocheting is therapy for group’s addiction recovery WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2016
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City approves lease of South Sumter Gym BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Sumter City Council conducted a workshop concerning Community Development Block Grant funding for the fiscal year 2017-18 in a special called meeting Tuesday before its reg-
ularly scheduled meeting. Community Development Director Clarence Gaines presented a CDBG budget containing the same total as last year. The budget showed $5,000 would be removed from the demolition program and $2,000 from the home repair program. In addition, $3,000 was
removed from sewer repair and $10,000 added for historic preservation. The historic preservation funding would go to downtown businesses that wish to upgrade facades or install new signs, Gaines said. Businesses would have to provide labor and matching funds, he added.
Only at the Boykin Christmas Parade
Funding for administration, youth employment, YMCA Youth Services, Wateree Aids Task Force and Sumter United Ministries would remain unchanged under the budget Gaines presented.
SEE CITY, PAGE A6
Sheriff ’s office, volunteers deliver food to 97 families BY ADRIENNE SARVIS adrienne@theitem.com Officers with Sumter County Sheriff’s Office and other volunteers delivered 150 bags and boxes to 97 families for the fourth-annual Senior Cpl. Elizabeth Foxworth Helping Hands Food Drive on Tuesday. Lt. Petrina Wiley, who coordinated the food drive and deliveries, said more than $780 was also raised for the food drive. The food drive is held in honor of Foxworth, who was known for helping others. Foxworth died Dec. 10, 2012. This is another year since Foxworth gained her wings, Wiley said. She said Foxworth was all about giving. It didn’t matter whatever or whenever, and she would give her children time too, she said. Alice Foxworth, Foxworth’s mother-in-law, said her daughter-in-law got her charitable spirit from her family and being around people who needed help. She was always on the phone trying to help somebody, she said. “She was an amazing gal. She really was,” Alice Foxworth said. Before the officers and volunteers, including three of Foxworth’s children, loaded the food into their vehicles and headed out, Wiley split the volunteers into teams and told them information about a few of the recipients. One person who received a
PHOTOS BY MELANIE SMITH / THE SUMTER ITEM
Above, Sheriff Jim Matthews of Kershaw County shares a message with Boykin Christmas paradegoers that anyone who steals, participates in gang activity or sells or buys drugs won’t be home for Christmas. Lots more photos on A3 and at theitem.com. Right, Sandhill Shooting Sports Outdoor Pistol and Rifle Range and the Kershaw County chapter of The Well Armed Woman warn “Don’t shoot your eye out” this Christmas. Hundreds tailgated and watched the annual Boykin Christmas Parade on Sunday in Boykin. A cannon announced the parade’s start, and a variety of participants walked, rode, galloped or ran the parade route. There were food and drinks for sale, and the rain held off until just after the parade ended. This year, in typical surprise fashion, Santa and Mrs. Claus greeted the crowd from atop a giant elephant.
SEE FOOD, PAGE A6
Islamic State claims Berlin Christmas market attack BERLIN (AP) — The Islamic State group claimed responsibility Tuesday for a truck attack on a crowded Berlin Christmas market that German authorities said came right out of the extremist group’s playbook, inflicting mass casualties on a soft target fraught with symbolic meaning.
The Monday night attack on the popular market by the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in the heart of former West Berlin left 12 dead and 48 injured — the first mass casualty attack by Islamic extremists carried out on German soil. German security forces were still hunting for the perpetrator
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after releasing a man from custody for lack of evidence. The claim of responsibility carried on the Islamic State group’s Amaq news agency described the man seen fleeing from the truck as “a soldier of the Islamic State” who “carried out the attack in response to calls for tar-
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geting citizens of the Crusader coalition.” Germany is not involved in anti-IS combat operations, but has Tornado jets and a refueling plane stationed in Turkey in support of the coalition
SEE ISIS, PAGE A6
WEATHER, A10
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SUNNY AND WARMER
3 SECTIONS, 22 PAGES VOL. 122, NO. 48
Mostly sunny today and warmer than yesterday; tonight, partly cloudy and chilly, no chance of rain. HIGH 58, LOW 36
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