Door will close soon for finding health coverage Specialists can help you enroll for 2015 $1.50
SUNDAY, JANUARY 4, 2015
BY JADE REYNOLDS jade@theitem.com
SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894
5 SECTIONS, 34 PAGES | VOL. 120, NO. 67
OPINION
A woman left Sumter Family Health Center clapping Wednesday. With the help of Quinnishia Dennis, the woman was able to sign up for an insurance plan on the Health Insurance Marketplace — a component of the Affordable Care Act. “She qualified for a tax
credit, and she didn’t think she would,” said the outreach and enrollment specialist. “She didn’t do it last year because she didn’t think she would qualify. It’s been very beneficial to those who have signed up.” Others have had a less exciting experience but have still received coverage. Sonya Del Rio, outreach and enrollment coordinator at
JADE REYNOLDS / THE SUMTER ITEM
The S.C. BLUE RV welcomes questions from visitors during the last three days of December while parked outside of Doctors Care in Sumter. About 15 people SEE ENROLL, PAGE A3 came out to learn more about the Marketplace.
Misty makeover
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The King never disappointed fans Elvis would have turned 80 on Thursday A8 BUSINESS
Airstream can’t keep up with demand D1 DEATHS, A5 and A9 KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM
Margaret W. Cain Terrie W. Gainey Cora L. Archie Margaret A. Graham Frederick Houghtling Judy Ward James L. McGill Dorothy H. Ford Martha L. Allen Louise C. Anderson Sammie L. Lesane James A. Boyd Mildred P. Walker
Mist surrounds Ernie Allen as he washes the mud off his car Saturday afternoon on Wesmark Boulevard.
Ferguson faces challenging road forward BY ALLEN G. BREED AP National Writer
WEATHER, A10 WATCH FOR STORMS Rain and storms possible today; clouds breaking tonight HIGH 76, LOW 42
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FERGUSON, Mo. — It’s doubtful they were aware, but the rioters who torched Juanita Morris’ dress shop had strayed a couple of blocks beyond the Ferguson city limits and into the town of Dellwood. Such is the indiscriminate nature of rage. But walking amid the ashes of 28 years of work, Juanita Morris was thinking about something else: Her plans to rebuild. “When you’ve been beaten to the ground, you can’t do nothing but come up,” she said, standing outside the charred shell of her West Florissant Avenue store, Juanita’s Fashions R Boutique, on a recent frigid morning. “One brick at a time, one dress at a time ... I will rise.” Officials in and around this St. Louis suburb are trying to rebuild as well after the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, an unarmed black man, by a white police officer and the fiery riots that fol-
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Brightly colored ribbons flutter from a wrought-iron fence on Dec. 9 along a main thoroughfare in Ferguson, Missouri. lowed a grand jury’s decision in November not to indict. But they are finding that trust can prove more difficult to restore than buildings. •••
edging there’s a problem. But for many of the volunteers at the I Love Ferguson store across from police headquarters, the violence following Brown’s shooting and the Nov. 24 announcement that Officer Darren Wilson would not be
The saying goes that the first step toward recovery is acknowl-
SEE FERGUSON, PAGE A3
Statewide traffic fatalities increase slightly in 2014 BY MATT BRUCE matthew@theitem.com More people died on the roads in South Carolina in 2014 than the year before, according to Highway Patrol numbers released Monday. More than 800 deaths occurred on the state’s highways during the year, an increase of about 40 more than in 2013, when the Palmetto
State had a 30-year low in traffic fatalities at 762. “We’re making strides, and each and every day, we’re trying to work toward our goal, which is Target Zero,” said Lance Cpl. Judd Jones, referencing the South Carolina Highway Patrol’s campaign to eliminate deadly crashes. “We try to have zero fatalities every day we patrol and work the roads. Whether it’s attainable,
that’s another question. But that’s the goal that we strive toward.” The final tally for the year showed at least 809 traffic deaths unofficially and remained relatively small as one of the lowest tallies of the past 10 years. The highway patrol news release calculated 804 traffic fatalities through Dec. 28. Media reports showed at least an additional five oc-
curred on the state’s roads during the final three days of the year. Last year, the state saw an 11 percent decrease in its fatality numbers, but in 2007 more than 1,000 people died on South Carolina thoroughfares. The report indicated at least 10 people died during the Christmas holiday season. In a Dec. 23 crash in Sum-
ter County, a New York family of four died while traveling along Interstate 95 en route to Florida. In Sumter County, there were 26 fatalities, an increase of nine over 2013. The county saw 16 traffic deaths in 2012 and 23 in 2011. Clarendon County had nine such incidents, marking its lowest number of highway deaths
SEE FATALITIES, PAGE A3