Sumter native named national teaching fellow $1.50
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2015
SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894
Johnson one of 18 educators across U.S. to receive this honor BY IVY MOORE ivy@theitem.com Sumter native Stephanie Michelle Johnson, a third-grade teacher at HB Rhame Elementary
School in Columbia’s Richland County School District One, has been named a 2015 Hope Street Group National Teacher Fellow. She is one of only 18 teachers in the U.S. to receive this recognition.
According to a news release from Hope Street Group, it is a “nonpartisan, nonprofit organization (that) provides a group of public school JOHNSON teachers, who are chosen through a rigorous selection process, with skills around peer
SEE TEACHER, PAGE A13
5 SECTIONS, 38 PAGES | VOL. 121, NO. 51
Wreaths Across America at Sumter Cemetery
Spirit of St. Louis flies again Man spends close to a decade building replica A3 BUSINESS
Holidays, hunting drive local gun sales D1 New rule to affect truck drivers D3
PHOTOS BY KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Second Lt. Tashiyah Stuckey, 2nd Lt. Sam Mobius and Airman 1st Class Tashiba Lampkin, above, salute the wreaths they placed on the fence at Sumter Cemetery on Saturday as part of the Wreaths Across America Project.
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Rucker will host ‘American Country Countdown’ E3
Volunteers, left, carry wreaths to place along the fence at the cemetery. Volunteers from the Civil Air Patrol, Daughters of the American Revolution and the Patriot Guard were among those who helped place 180 wreaths in memory of military loved ones lost.
DEATHS, A13 Martha D. Eure Annette B. Dwight Mildred A. Player Willie F. London
Rodney R. Rabb Eugene Wilson John H. Ardis
WEATHER, A14 NICE WEATHER AGAIN Partial sunshine today; some clouds tonight with a shower possible late HIGH 76, LOW 60
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Historically strong El Niño may bring warm, wet winter BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com According to meteorologists, a strong warming pattern in the equatorial Pacific Ocean may mean a warmer, wetter winter than normal for South Carolina. The pattern is called “El Niño,” and it gets its
name from fishermen off the west coast of South America, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In some years, the fishermen experienced warming ocean waters and a decline in their fishing success beginning about Christmas time.
They called the phenomenon “El Niño,” meaning the Christ child, or “little boy” in Spanish. The name has been given to the weather phenomenon which affected their harvests, characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. The opposite state, in
which cooler-than-normal temperatures are observed in the area, is called “La Niña,” or “little girl” in Spanish. But what happens in the Pacific does not stay in the Pacific. El Niños usually cause an increase in precipitation across
SEE WEATHER, PAGE A13
Students show skills in robot competition BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Calling Team Thunderbot a bunch of nerds would be rude and sophomoric. Telling them they have a few screws loose is OK, however. They will just check their robot. Tightening the screws after every round is one of the things they learned in their first competition a
week ago according to team member Katie Guo, who helps write the programming for team’s robot, Thunderbot. On Saturday, Team Thunderbot and another Sumter High School team, the Bot Squad, were competing in the Vex Robotics Challenge at the school against other teams from the region. “We found out you had to keep checking your screws,” Guo said.
“After the second part of the competition, they started falling out.” Learning is what the competition is all about said Sumter High engineering, computers and technology teacher Tammy Vaught, who also sponsors the teams. “It’s tied to what they are doing in the classroom,” she said. “This is an academic competition.”
KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Ben Tower makes an adjustment to his team’s robot SEE ROBOTS, PAGE A13 during the competition at Sumter High on Saturday.