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200 jobs could come to Sumter with new Apex Tool expansion Company will shutter its plants in Texas, Arkansas BY BRADEN BUNCH braden@theitem.com (803) 774-1201 Apex Tool will add between 150 and 200 jobs to its Sumter location beginning next year
after the company announced it will restructure its manufacturing efforts by closing facilities in Texas and Arkansas. The global tool manufacturer headquartered in
IRBIL, Iraq (AP) — The U.S. unleashed its first airstrikes in northern Iraq against militants of the Islamic State group Friday amid a worsening humanitarian crisis. The extremists took captive hundreds of women from a religious minority, according to an Iraqi official, while thousands of other civilians fled in fear. Many of America’s allies backed the U.S. intervention, pledging urgent steps to assist the legions of refugees and displaced people. Those in jeopardy included thousands of members of the Yazidi religious minority whose plight — trapped on a mountaintop by the militants — prompted the U.S. to airdrop crates of food and water to them. The extremists’ “campaign of terror against the innocent, includJOHN KERRY ing the Yazidi and Christian U.S. Secretary minorities, and its grotesque of State and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. “For anyone who needed a wake-up call, this is it.” Underscoring the sense of alarm, a spokesman for Iraq’s human rights ministry said hundreds of Yazidi women had been taken captive by the militants. Kamil Amin, citing reports from the victims’ families, said some of the women were being held in schools in Iraq’s second-largest city, Mosul. “We think that the terrorists by now consider them slaves, and they have vicious plans for them,” Amin told The Associated Press. “We think that these women are going to be used in demeaning ways by those terrorists to satisfy their animalistic urges in a way that contradicts all the human and Islamic values.”
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ing operations in order to be competitive and serve our customers efficiently,” Apex Tool Group told thecitywire. com in a statement. The Arkansas media outlet reported Thursday that layoffs at the Springdale location, which employs about 250 people, would begin next year. Jay Schwedler, president of Sumter Economic Develop-
ment Board, said the decision by Apex displays the company’s confidence in the longterm economic stability of the Sumter area. This is the second Sumter expansion announcement by Apex in the last three years. Back in 2011, the company announced it would bring an additional 33 jobs and $1.4
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Wedding bells and blue lights
U.S. bombs militants in Iraq crisis
‘ ... Its grotesque and targeted acts of violence bear all the warning signs and hallmarks of genocide. For anyone who needed a wake-up call, this is it.’
Maryland said because the announcement comes as part of its consolidation efforts that will shutter facilities in Dallas and Springdale, Arkansas, those employees will have the first opportunity to apply for the new Sumter positions. “All three of these facilities are operating substantially below capacity, so we need to consolidate these manufactur-
MATT WALSH / THE SUMTER ITEM
Maj. Allen Dailey and his wife, Lt. Jenny Dailey, both with Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, have been married 14 years and met serving.
Couples serving on the force together make things work BY ROB COTTINGHAM rob@theitem.com (803) 774-1225
W
hile having a spouse serving in law enforcement might seem stressful enough, how do things work when both husband and wife don the big, bright badge?
“I might outrank her at the office, but she outranks me at home,” said Maj. Allen Dailey of Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, smiling in the process. Allen and his wife, Lt. Jenny Dailey, found more than a job in their law enforcement careers: They found each other. “We met while doing D.A.R.E. pro-
grams for our agencies,” Allen said. “I was working here (Sumter), and she was with Kershaw County. We’ve been married for 14 years.” The Daileys have been working for the same agency for a while but not in an elbow-to-elbow sense.
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Sumter GOP announces its HQ opening BY JADE REYNOLDS jade@theitem.com (803) 774-1250 Gov. Nikki Haley will soon be visiting Sumter again. This time she’s stopping by for the opening of the Sumter County GOP Headquarters, 710 Bultman Drive, which chairwoman Shery Smith is calling the “2014 Victory Headquarters.” “The goal this season is to turn
South Carolina red to the roots,” she said. “The opening of this headquarters is the first step in Sumter County. We’re looking to turn Sumter CounHALEY ty red one vote at a time.” The event kicks off at 6 p.m. Tuesday with Haley cutting the ribbon. Afterward, she is expected to make a few remarks and be
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Esther Felder John Cobb Jr. Naomay A. Griffin Elizabeth L. Adger Inez Hollman Edna Gillard Lottie Mae H. Hill
available for pictures and autographs, Smith said. Haley is facing Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Camden, a second time. She defeated him for the governor’s seat in 2010. Rep. Murrell Smith, R-Sumter, will also speak. He is not facing opposition in the upcoming election. Matt Moore, chairman of the
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