August 26, 2015

Page 1

IN PANORAMA: U-neek Flavur to perform at 4th Fridays C1

Remembering Rick Hines Retired Marine known as business owner, being civic minded A2

SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2015

75 CENTS

Ruffle some feathers

County gives go ahead to $30.6M bond Focus of funds will be improvements to Enhanced 911 communications, more BY ADRIENNE SARVIS adrienne@theitem.com Sumter County Council approved final reading of an ordinance authorizing the sale of $30.6 million bond anticipation notes and no more than $40 million in bonds to fund a portion of the 2016 Capital Penny Sales Tax projects during its meeting Tuesday. County Administrator Gary Mixon said the county used the same strategy for the 2008 penny projects, and it was successful. He said the county will sell the bond anticipation notes in mid-September, and the

money will be available to the county after closing agreements are signed on Sept. 30. The county will receive an interest rate on the day of sale, he said. Mixon said once the bond anticipation notes have been sold, the county will have one year to sell the bonds, which will not exceed $40 million. The bonds will then be used to pay off the bond anticipation notes and the revenues from the penny sales tax that will be collected starting May 2016, will be

SEE COUNTY, PAGE A5

Law enforcement wants better way to subdue suspects KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM

Wendy Graiff bathes Loki, a Military McCaw, at her shop, For Pet’s Sake, on Tuesday afternoon. The salon works on guinea pigs, ferrets, rabbits, dogs, cats and exotic animals.

Advisers: Most local investors can ride out market concerns BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Local investment advisers said the average investor shouldn’t be too concerned about the world stock markets’ recent weakness. This week’s sell off has been attributed to investors’ fears of a slowdown in China, the Associated Press reported, but China’s response and an encouraging survey of U.S. consumer confidence buoyed the markets for much of the day Tuesday. Unfortunately, the gains were given up by the end of the day as U.S. stocks closed lower after falling sharply in the final hour of trading. Stocks had surged early, rebounding from a big sell-off on Monday, after the Chinese cen-

tral bank said it was cutting interest rates to shore up its economy. Investor confidence remains fragile after a series of big drops in recent days and the market suffered a dramatic reversal in the final hour of trading, the AP reported. According to AP reports, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 204.78, or 1.3 percent, to 15,666.44 The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 25.60 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1,867.62. The Nasdaq composite dropped 19.76 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,506.49. Treasury bonds fell, pushing up the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 2.09 percent. The Greater Sumter Chamber of Commerce

SEE STOCKS, PAGE A6

Governors say ‘no’ to terrorist detainees COLUMBIA (AP) — The governors of South Carolina and Kansas wrote to the Obama administration on Tuesday, threatening to sue if detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are brought to military installations in either state. “We will not be part of any illegal and ill-advised action by this Administration, especially when that action relates

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to importing terrorists into our states,” Govs. Nikki Haley and Sam Brownback told Defense Secretary Ash Carter. “Please know that we will take any action within our power to make sure no Guantanamo Bay detainees are transferred to South Carolina or Kansas.” At a news conference last week, Haley said Defense Department officials were “wast-

ing their time” in evaluating the Naval Brig near Charleston as a potential site to house detainees and that she would not “allow South Carolina to be a magnet for terrorists.” The Pentagon has said it will send a survey team to the military prison in South Carolina by month’s end, and a similar assessment was conducted

SEE DETAINEES, PAGE A5

DEATHS, B7 Benjamin China Jr. Frederick M. Hines Harry M. Smith James Mark Roosevelt Cabbagestalk Christine Deas

Francis L. Newcomb Paul Bradley Jr. Chase W. Olson Edwin W. Oliver Jr. Harry L. English

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Salvatore Emma Jr., president and CEO of Micron Products, displays Blunt Impact Projectiles, one ready for use, left, and another after being fired during a test at the factory in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, on July 30.

Police pursue less-lethal weapons FITCHBURG, Mass. (AP) — Police in more than 20 North American cities are testing the latest in less-lethal alternatives to bullets — “blunt impact projectiles” that cause suspects excruciating pain but stop short of killing them. Or at least that’s the goal. Police have long had what they considered “nonlethal” weapons at their disposal, including pepper spray, stun guns and beanbag projectiles. But even those weapons have caused deaths, leading to a search for “less lethal” alternatives. The quest has taken on new urgency in the past year amid furor about a string of high-profile police shootings of black men. Micron Products Inc., based in Fitchburg, Massa-

chusetts, makes the new ammunition, which are much larger than rubber bullets and have silicone heads that expand and flatten on impact, enhancing the pain and incapacitating a suspect. One executive of the company that patented the technology was a guinea pig and described experiencing the business end of a BIP as the “equivalent of being hit by a hockey puck.” “It was like, ‘Ow!’ I had to shake it off,” said Allen Ezer, executive vice president of Security Devices International, a defense technology company that hired Micron to make the projectiles, which were developed by a ballistics engineering company in Israel.

SEE WEAPONS, PAGE A6

WEATHER, A8

INSIDE

EXPECT CLOUDS

3 SECTIONS, 24 PAGES VOL. 120, NO. 263

Mostly cloudy with a thunderstorm today; clear to partly cloudy tonight. HIGH 90, LOW 70

Classifieds B8 Comics C6 Food C2

Lotteries A8 Opinion A7 Television C7


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