March 22, 2016

ENTERTAINMENT:

‘Heartbeat’ is often too farfetched

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Border residents divided about wall Some welcome idea while others say promise is ‘complete insanity’ A4

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Clarendon Health’s board agrees to look into working with McLeod An agreement with Florence hospital could help free system from its recent fiscal problems

BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Clarendon Memorial Hospital, which serves the city of Manning and Clarendon

County, may be looking toward McLeod Regional Medical Center as a way to emerge from recent financial problems.

Leaders of Clarendon

Center gets international makeover

Health System, which includes the Manning hospital, have agreed to explore an agreement with McLeod Regional Medical Center in Florence, according to Don Ellis, a

member of the Clarendon Health System board of trustees.

“We agreed to pursue some sort of arrangement with McLeod at our last board

meeting,” Ellis said Monday.

“It could be just a sharing of one line of service all the way up to a full merger.”

SEE BOARD, PAGE A6

After 5 miles, it’s a close race

BY JIM HILLEY jim@theitem.com Rembert Area Community Coalition is getting a new coat of paint and some landscaping improvements thanks to a group of international students from Georgia Tech University.

Christy Rakness, as immigration adviser at the Office of International Education, said she helped bring 37 students to South Carolina for community service projects. She said the students are from nations such as India, China, Korea, Indonesia, France, Germany and Pakistan.

“Our office sponsors a trip every spring and fall break,” she said.

Among the group are undergraduates and graduates, Rakness said.

On Monday the students were busily engaged in painting the two-story community center and clearing away

SEE MAKEOVER, PAGE A6

Kinney says he will run for seat in District 50

KEITH GEDAMKE / THE SUMTER ITEM

Alzaro Torres and Roy Creech race to the finish line during the Tuomey Foundation 5 Miler on Saturday. The annual race raises money for diabetes education and treatment.

FROM STAFF REPORTS Demoine Kinney has announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the South Carolina House of Representatives District 50 seat in the June 14 Primary Election.

“The need for economic development is crucial to the future of Lee County,” Kinney said. “If elected, I would partner with others to aggressively pursue state and federal funds for KINNEY our district for industry and small businesses.”

He said he would work to bring recreational and educational opportunities, including vocational training, to the community and would develop partnerships with criminal justice leaders to assist youthful offenders. He also said he will be an advocate for veterans’ rights.

SEE KINNEY, PAGE A6

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Fireside Fund ends season with another strong year in Sumter

BY JACK OSTEEN jack@theitem.com Fireside Fund wrapped up another successful year with nearly $53,000 in donations given during the four-month period.

“The Fireside Fund illustrates the caring nature of our community,” said Hubert Osteen, chairman of Osteen Publishing Co. “It’s amazing that each year residents of Sumter donate more than $50,000 to help people they don’t even know but for whom they have a generous heart.

In a year that saw residents giving their neighbors a helping hand following a devastating flood, the Fireside Fund extends that hand that reaches out just a little further for our fellow citizens.”

Fireside Fund helped literally hundreds of families with their heating and electric bills this season

DEATHS, B5 Roger Wheat Mary M. Bright Jacob Boatwright James F. Gore Jr. Malachi Canty Mattie Lou Nelson-Holmes

Betty J. Merchant Joseph C. Jenkins Dr. Samuel S. Haywood Mellissa B. Jellerson Georgia Mae B. Josey

along with kerosene, propane and even firewood.

This year’s Fireside Fund was in honor of Dr. Charles “Pap” Propst, who died on May 20, 2015, at the age of 90.

“Throughout his life, our father was focused on serving others through his practice, through the schools, through the YMCA, through his church and just by being a friend,” said his son Sims Propst. “He would be so pleased to

SEE FIRESIDE, PAGE A6

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Warmer with plenty of sunshine; clear sky tonight.

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TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

THE SUMTER ITEM

Call: (803) 774-1226 | E-mail: pressrelease@theitem.com

Volunteers pick up more than 17 tons of debris

BY ADRIENNE SARDIS adrienne@theitem.com More than 90 volunteers collected more than an estimated 17 tons of litter during this year’s Manchester State Forest Cleanup Day on Saturday.

Steve Ward, director of Manchester State Forest Law Enforcement and president of South Carolina Litter Control Association, said he was impressed with the amount of volunteers who came out to help.

He said there were about 40 volunteers last year.

The 93 volunteers represented Shaw Air Force Base, Sumter High School, Manchester Elementary School and residents of Sumter County.

The volunteers were separated into seven groups: 20th Logistics Readiness Squadron, Badger Flight, 20th Civil Engineering Squadron and Air Force Central Command A6, all from Shaw Air Force Base; Sumter High School’s Go Green Week students; Manchester Elementary School PTA; and a civic group called Fifth Floor Fire.

The groups with the most volunteers received cash prizes to be used for beautification projects.

Many of the volunteers started their day at 7:30 a.m. with an orientation then picked up litter until noon.

The groups picked up trash along portions of Avins Road, S.C. 261, Bells Mill Road, Burnt Gin Road and S.C. 763.

Caroline Glover, an 11thgrade student at Sumter High, said she enjoyed helping out on Saturday.

“It’s simple to do, and it’s easy to make a big impact by just picking up trash for a couple of hours,” she said.

Glover said she would like to volunteer during next year’s cleanup day.

Ward said litter in the area has been a constant problem through the years.

“Some people say, ‘It’s just

LOCAL & STATE BRIEFS FROM STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

Waterlines in Lakewood Links undergoing repairs City of Sumter will be making repairs to the waterlines in Lakewood Links Subdivision. Work is scheduled to begin today and be completed within two days.

There will be minor service interruptions to customers during this work.

Direct questions or concerns to the City of Sumter Public Services Department at (803) 436-2558.

Roundabouts cut accidents, injuries ANDERSON — More traffic circles are being built in

PHOTOS PROVIDED

Volunteers picked up more than 17 tons of debris Saturday on roadways adjacent to Manchester State Forest. Items ranged from tires and coolers to beer bottles and cans. the woods. What’s the problem?’” he said.

Although there is a lot of effort to keep the areas clean, there just is not enough law enforcement and civic groups to keep up, Ward said.

He said S.C. Litter Control Association, PalmettoPride and law enforcement agencies throughout the state will meet on March 30 at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia to educate law enforcement on litter in time for Zero Tolerance for Litter month in April.

Manchester State Forest Cleanup Day was a collaborative effort between Manchester State Forest, Clemson Extension Service, Sumter County Public Works and Palmetto Pride, an affiliate of Keep America Beautiful.

South Carolina, and figures from the state Department of Transportation show they help reduce the number of accidents and injuries at intersections.

The Independent Mail of Anderson reports that 15 traffic circles have been built in the state.

DOT numbers show those traffic circles have resulted in a 74 percent reduction in total crashes, a 68 percent reduction in crashes with injuries and a 100 percent reduction in the number of fatal crashes compared to the standard intersections they replaced.

DOT’s Chris Jordan told the newspaper that by eliminating left-hand turns at intersections — and with them, the possibility that cars will be hit broadside — accidents that do occur are likely to be less serious.

Volunteers collect trash along roadways in Manchester State Forest.

Young pianists sought to perform in Southeastern Piano Festival FROM STAFF REPORTS The 2016 Southeastern Piano Festival seeks young pianists to perform during the Piano Extravaganza Concert on Sunday, June 12, in Johnson Performance Hall in the Darla Moore School of Business.

Auditions take place on May 1 in the University of South Carolina School of Music, 813 Assembly St. Piano students ages 5-13 at all levels are eligible.

Winners will perform a special work for eight pianists and four grand pianos composed by Sasha Yakub, a young up-and-

coming composer. The composition is a light fantasy work for 16 hands, featuring elements from such popular hits as “Uptown Funk” and “Frozen.”

In addition, one pianist will be awarded “The Most Promising Young Pianist Prize” and will have an opportunity to perform during the 2017 piano festival.

The winner will also receive four tickets to any 2016 festival concert and a festival T-shirt.

Participants must prepare two pieces: one memorized solo work of their choosing and the part for

the Piano Extravaganza Concert. Copies of the parts will be available for download on April 1.

To register and to pay the $10 audition fee, go to festival website sepf.music. sc.edu and click on the “Piano Extravaganza: Open Call Audition” link located under “Festival Updates.”

Winners will be notified by e-mail and telephone on May 2-3 and must take part in at least two May rehearsals and a dress rehearsal on June 11.

E-mail questions to sepf@mozart.sc.edu.

HOW TO REACH US IS YOUR PAPER MISSING? ARE YOU GOING ON VACATION? Call (803) 774-1258

20 N. Magnolia St., Sumter, S.C. 29150 (803) 774-1200 Jack Osteen Editor and Publisher jack@theitem.com (803) 774-1238 Rick Carpenter Managing Editor rick@theitem.com (803) 774-1201 Waverly Williams Sales Manager waverly@theitem.com (803) 774-1237

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LOCAL / NATION

THE SUMTER ITEM

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

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Ex-State Department worker gets nearly 5 years in sextortion case ATLANTA (AP) — A former U.S. State Department employee was sentenced Monday to serve nearly five years in federal prison for accessing young women’s online accounts from his computer at the American embassy in London and threatening to expose their sexually explicit photos.

Michael C. Ford, 36, sent “phishing” emails to women, specifically targeting members of sororities and aspiring models. He claimed to be a member of Google’s account deletion team, which doesn’t exist, to get them to hand over their passwords, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross sentenced him to four years and nine months in prison followed by three years on supervised release.

Ross granted a request to delay the start of his prison term until after Aug. 1 so that he can be present when his wife is due to give birth to their second child in late July.

Ford told the judge he was feeling small and looked down upon in his personal and professional lives and retreated into an online world where the people he was interacting with didn’t seem real, he said. He’s truly sorry

to his victims, he said.

“What I did was a low and cowardly act by a person who was desperate,” he said.

He wanted to get caught so he’d be fired and could leave an unbearable work situation without having to say he was a quitter, he said, adding that he suffered from severe depression and suicidal thoughts. He cried as he addressed the judge.

More than 30 of Ford’s friends and family members, including some who’d traveled from England, packed the courtroom to show support. A dozen people, including his wife, addressed the court either in person or by video, describing Ford as a doting husband and loving father to his 2-year-old son.

The judge told Ford she was “utterly disgusted” by what he’d done, especially given the support and love that was clearly available to him from his friends and family.

Ford was arrested at an Atlanta airport in May and pleaded guilty in December to nine counts of cyberstalking, seven counts of computer hacking to extort and one count of wire fraud.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of eight years. Defense attorneys suggested less than four years.

Police turn over burglary suspect to Sumter County Sheriff ’s Office FROM STAFF REPORTS Sumter County Sheriff’s Office arrested Frank Lamar Wilson Jr., 26, of Monticello on Sunday on charges of first-degree burglary after a Dec. 23 incident in the county. Sumter police originally arrested Wilson on an unrelated charge and disWILSON covered there was a warrant for his arrest by the sheriff’s office and turned him over to the sheriff’s office.

The warrant states Wilson and a co-defendant entered a residence in the 400 block of Browntown Road without con-

sent and with intent to commit a crime therein.

The warrant states once inside, Wilson took 11 assorted firearms valued at about $7,650, $1,200 in assorted jewelry and a pellet rifle valued at about $200. Nine of the items were located at a local pawn shop where they had been pawned hours after the burglary.

On Jan. 8, the pawn shop notified law enforcement that Wilson tried to pawn the stolen pellet rifle. Law enforcement recovered the weapon three days later.

Wilson is being held at Sumter-Lee Regional Detention Center awaiting a bond hearing before a circuit court judge.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Greg Joswiak, vice president of iOS, iPad and iPhone product marketing, announces the new iPhone SE at Apple headquarters Monday in Cupertino, California.

Apple unveils small iPhone, new iPad for business use CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple unveiled a small new iPhone, a new iPad tablet for business use and price cuts for its Apple Watch at a product event Monday. The announcements, which were largely expected, aim to keep up the company’s commercial momentum in the face of mounting challenges.

The company could use a lift. Sales of its flagship iPhone are leveling off after surging last year to record levels that made Apple the world’s biggest company by stock market value. Many are wondering if Cook can come up with another big hit.

And today, Apple lawyers will square off with authorities in federal court over the FBI’s demand for help unlocking a San Bernardino killer’s encrypted iPhone. The tech giant insists the government’s plan would compromise security for all iPhone users.

While Apple’s dispute with the government has commanded headlines for weeks, it warranted only a brief mention at the product event. “We did not expect to be in this position,” CEO Tim Cook told the gathering.

“But we believe we have a responsibility to protect your data and to protect your privacy.”

The new phone — the iPhone SE — is an upgrade to the older, four-inch iPhone 5S, released in 2013. It’s aimed at consumers who haven’t sprung for the bigger-screen iPhone 6 models that Apple introduced over the last

two years. The new phone comes with features like Apple Pay and the company’s fastest processor, which have previously been offered only on versions of the iPhone 6.

Apple also unveiled a smaller model of the iPad Pro, which the company introduced last year with several features — like a detachable keyboard and stylus — designed for business users. The Apple Watch got a price cut, and will now start at $299, down from $349; it will also come with new wristbands made of woven nylon. Apple launched the smartwatch to great fanfare last year, although it has yet to win a big following.

The iPhone SE might not see the kind of blockbuster demand that Apple enjoyed with its large-screen iPhone 6 and 6S models, according to several financial analysts, but it could help Apple boost overall sales. It might also draw some additional users into the market for Apple’s online services, including Apple Music, Apple Pay and the highly profitable mobile App Store.

While shoppers bought a record 74.8 million iPhones in the final three months of 2015, Apple has signaled demand in the current three-month period will fall short of the 61 million iPhones sold in the JanuaryMarch quarter last year.

The iPhone SE will sell for $399 with no cellular contract, significantly lower than larger iPhone models, which list at $549 or more.

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NATION

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

THE SUMTER ITEM

Trump’s border wall draws mixed reactions from Arizona residents ASTRID GALVAN AND BRIAN SKOLOFF The Associated Press NOGALES, Ariz. — Donald Trump’s ambitious plan to build a giant wall on the border hits close to home for people like Berenice Andrews.

The front door of her family’s home is just feet away from a fence separating the U.S. and Mexico. The home is so close to Mexico that the sounds of schoolchildren at play south of the border can be heard. So can buses along a main thoroughfare on the Mexico side.

As the presidential contest shifts to Arizona and today’s primary, Trump’s wall stirs up a range of emotions among border-area residents like Andrews. For some, nothing short of a wall will do. For her, the fence that currently divides the U.S. and Mexico is a good enough barrier.

“For him to even propose something like that is complete insanity,” Andrews said.

Trump has not provided specifics on the wall but says it would cost between $10 billion and $12 billion, and has said he would make Mexico pay for it. Mexico has scoffed at the idea.

There are already about 650 miles of fencing, including the steel fence that divides the sister cities of Nogales in Arizona and Mexico and ranges from 18 feet to 26 feet tall.

Much of the border was built in the last 15 years as immigration surged. The cost has been in the billions.

The Associated Press interviewed people who live on the border to get their perspective on Trump’s border wall plan:

GUNS AT THE READY Everywhere Jim Chilton goes on his sprawling cattle ranch along the Mexican border in Arizona, he has a gun at the ready. Guns at his front door. Guns in his pickup truck. Guns on his horse’s saddle.

For Chilton, illegal immigration and drug smuggling isn’t just something he hears about on the news. He lives with it every day as smugglers routinely cross the border on his property. He supports just about anything to stop it, including Trump’s plan to build a wall from one end of the

border to the other.

“We need a wall. We need forward operation bases. We need Border Patrol to be down there all the time,” Chilton said. “We just need to secure that international boundary at the border, period.”

While Chilton hasn’t decided who he’ll vote for in the presidential election, he certainly supports the idea of building a wall.

“I’m tired of having thousands of people coming through my ranch. I worry about running into a guy with an AK-47 and a bunch of druggers behind him,” Chilton said. “The United States needs to secure its international boundary.”

PHOTOS BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A U.S. Border Patrol agent drives near the U.S.-Mexico border fence in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.

BOTHERED IN BISBEE Artist Kate Drew-Wilkinson lives in Bisbee, Arizona, where she owns a gallery a few miles north of the border.

Drew-Wilkinson opposes Trump and his wall proposal, saying he’s a bully who is dangerous to the United States.

“I don’t think he has a real understanding of the geography or the sheer difficulty of building a wall of that kind,” she said. “And it’s ugly. The whole thing is really ugly.”

Drew-Wilkinson, an England native who moved to the U.S. in the late 1960s, wouldn’t reveal who she would be voting for but said it definitely wouldn’t be Trump.

RANCHER WANTS A WALL, TRUMP John Ladd is a cattle rancher whose roughly 15,000-acre ranch abuts the border near Naco, Arizona. Immigrants and drug smugglers frequently sneak into the country on his property, cutting his barbed-wire fences and leaving behind garbage.

He is sick of politics as usual and finds Trump’s lack of political correctness refreshing. He isn’t bothered by Trump’s lack of specifics about how he’d build a wall.

He simply likes that Trump has been talking about illegal immigration since the beginning of his campaign.

“That really rang a bell with me and a lot of the ranchers, that finally we had somebody in the political arena that wasn’t worried about being politically correct and talked about the problem that is ac-

Jim Chilton shows off what are known as “carpet shoes” that he has collected from his sprawling property over the years in Arivaca, Arizona. The makeshift slip-on shoes with carpet on the soles are worn by people illegally crossing the border as a way to keep authorities from finding their tracks. tually happening,” he said.

Ladd said he isn’t sure the wall will ever actually be built but said he believes Trump will enforce immigration laws.

CONFLICTED REPUBLICAN Hector Orozco has a unique perspective on the border debate because of his occupation and past party affiliation.

He manages a manufacturing company south of the border with offices on the American side, making campaign debates about foreign trade especially relevant. He is also an immigrant from Mexico who became a U.S.

citizen and traditionally voted Republican.

As of late, though, Orozco said he can’t get behind the party and its ideology. To him, America’s biggest challenge is the deficit and the economy, not illegal immigration.

“It’s like they’re trying to distract us from the bigger problems,” he said. “(Illegal immigration) is a problem, but it’s not the biggest problem.”

And he said a wall wouldn’t resolve immigration problems in any way.

“People will find a way to improve their lives,” Orozco said. “Regardless of how big

the wall is, they’re gonna look for a way because they’re gonna want to make a better life for their family. Not all who cross are criminals.”

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TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

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A5

Breaking taboo, Hindu widows celebrate festival

BY BISWAJEET BANERJEE The Associated Press VRINDAVAN, India — Aruna Samaddar threw fistfuls of colored powder into the air. Blue and red and green, the cheerful colors settled on her white sari and all over other women nearby.

In most of India, widows like Samaddar have no place in this joyful celebration of Holi, the Hindu festival of colors. The country’s millions of observant Hindu widows are expected to live out their days in quiet worship, dressed only in white.

They are typically barred from all religious festivities because their very presence is considered inauspicious.

So for Samaddar, Monday’s celebration was a joy long denied.

“I am so happy. I am playing Holi after 12 years. I am happy, very happy,” said Samaddar, who appeared to be in her early 30s. The powder made her white sari and those of the widows around her shimmer in myriad colors.

So deep is the ostracization of widows that

‘ We have got just one day to celebrate life. Let’s do it to the hilt.’

ARUNA SAMADDAR A Hindu widow they’re often shunned by their families and forced to seek shelter in temples.

The holy city of Vrindavan, in India’s Uttar Pradesh state, is known as the City of Widows because it has given so many women shelter.

And in recent years, widows have found a bit of color and joy here as well.

Aid group Sulabh International has been organizing regular Holi celebrations in Vrindavan since 2013. Samaddar and more than 1,000 other widows gathered in the courtyard of one of the city’s oldest temples — devoted to Krishna, the most playful of the Hindu gods. The festival of Holi falls on Thursday this year, but in Vrindavan and many

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Hindu widows apply color powder to each other during Holi celebrations at the Gopinath temple, 112 miles south-east of New Delhi, India, on Monday. A few years ago this joyful celebration was forbidden for Hindu widows. other parts of the country, the playing of colors begins a week ahead.

Hindu priests chanted religious verses as hundreds of widows splashed colored powders and played with water pistols filled with colored water. Showers of flower petals filled the air.

As loud music blasted, the younger women jostled with each other as they played with the colors.

For dozens of older women, years of social conditioning proved

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hard to break. They applied only tiny dots of color to each other’s foreheads.

“Their participation in Holi symbolizes a break from tradition, which forbids a widow from wearing a colored sari, among many other things,” said Bindeshwar Pathak, the head of Sulabh International.

Sulabh was asked to oversee the lives of widows of the city by India’s Supreme Court following news reports of the widows being forced to beg for food and into

prostitution. While there are tens of thousands of widows in Vrindavan, the group has been appointed caretaker for about 1,500.

The organization looks after their basic needs and gives them a stipend of 2,000 rupees ($30) to buy essentials.

They are taught to make incense sticks and garlands to ensure that they can earn a small amount of money on their own. But for the most part, the women spend the day singing

hymns to Krishna, for which they earn 10 rupees (15 cents).

The women range in age from 22 to 100. Some were abandoned by their families decades ago.

While some women were not comfortable joining in the celebration of colors Samaddar was determined to have at least one day of cheer.

“We have got just one day to celebrate life,” she said as she tossed the colors joyfully.

“Let’s do it to the hilt.”

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LOCAL

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

THE SUMTER ITEM

BOARD FROM PAGE A1

MAKEOVER FROM PAGE A1

He said the board is not to the point where it will make a decision about partnering with McLeod.

“We are just pursuing it,” he said. “We would have to see if McLeod is interested in it also.”

Ellis said McLeod was the only name mentioned at the board meeting.

Like many rural hospitals in South Carolina, Clarendon Health System has been struggling financially in recent years and reportedly lost more than $5 million in fiscal year 2015.

A merger or partnership with the McLeod system, similar to the partnership Tuomey Healthcare System in Sumter made with Palmetto Health in Columbia, could help Clarendon Health System recover financially and remain a viable health care option for the Clarendon County area.

Clarendon Health System includes Clarendon Memorial Hospital, 10 Hospital St., Manning, and three nursing homes, several physician offices, Home Health, the Zone, EMS and Cypress Transport, as well as other service lines.

After Clarendon Health System reportedly lost more than $5 million in fiscal year 2015, the board of trustees removed Chief Executive Officer Richard Stokes in late December. Vice President of Operations Paul Schumacher has been interim CEO since that time.

Shortly after Stokes’ removal, Clarendon Health System Board Chairman Jim Darby said the hospital was not pursuing any mergers and stressed the need for the hospital to keep its local ties.

“We continue to feel it is extremely important for rural counties, and particularly Clarendon County, to have access to high quality health care and services in the community,” Darby said.

brush which had overgrown a flowerbed in front of the building.

“Our goal was to find a trip that was close enough to Atlanta that would help them better understand the culture and needs of places like Rembert,” Rakness said.

Another goal was to expose them to the tradition of helping each other out, which is part of the American culture.

“Many of the students don’t have the understanding of community service a U.S. student does,” she said.

Georgia Tech has about 6,000 foreign students, she said, the most of any university in Georgia. She said the entire university’s student body is about 21,000 students.

Juanita Britton, founder

FIRESIDE FROM PAGE A1 know that his name was used in support of such a worthy cause.”

Propst founded Sumter Pediatrics with Dr. Ted Young in 1954, where he practiced until 1986. Propst became a well-

JIM HILLEY / THE SUMTER ITEM

International students Cody Lee, from Korea, and Sam Chen, from China, clean out a flowerbed at Rembert Area Community Coalition.

KINNEY FROM PAGE A1 Kinney served for 12 years in the U.S. Air Force, serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and the Syrian crisis, according to a news release.

Kinney is married to Marita Robinson Kinney and is the parent of six children. The couple operates Vertical Lounge and Chris-

known member of the Sumter community, serving on the former Sumter School District 17 board, taking part in local clubs and affecting several generations of Sumterites.

According to Maj. Robbie Robbins, corps officer of The Salvation Army in Sumter, said the organization has helped more than 230 people

tian Café on Main Street in Bishopville, and both are pastors of Faith Builders Ministries of Christ. As licensed counselors, they offer marriage, family and Biblical counseling, according to the release.

Raised in Dillon, Kinney is a graduate of Dillon County Public School System. He earned an associate’s degree in applied arts in information systems technology

with kerosene vouchers and more than 145 with electric and gas assistance this season. Robbins said the group is still seeing clients for help with their electricity bills.

Started in 1969, Fireside Fund is a partnership between The Sumter Item and The Salvation Army. The newspaper collects the money

and chairwoman of the community coalition, said the students are among many groups that have visited rural South Carolina communities to provide assistance.

“These college kids are part of the flood recovery,” she said.

The students arrived in South Carolina on Saturday, Rakness said, and they will be leaving today. While in the Palmetto State, she said the students are staying in Summerton at Taw Caw Missionary Baptist Church.

She said the students would also visit Santee Wildlife Refuge before returning to Georgia.

“This is great that they are doing this instead of going down to Florida for spring break,” she said.

from Community College of the Air Force and a bachelor’s degree in information technology management from American Military University. He also has a degree in Biblical counseling from Light University, the release said.

“With hard work, mutual respect for all and commitment, I have faith that it is our time to make a change for the better,” Kinney said.

and gives it to the local nonprofit.

The final week of donations are as follows: Women’s Guild of St. Anne and St. Jude Parish, $200; in memory of Charles Pap Propst from Nell and Tommy Hall, $25; in honor of Heather Paul from Charlie Pitts, $25; in honor of Bunni Russell from

Charlie Pitts, $25; and in honor of Jeanette Roveri at Shepherd’s Center from Charlie Pitts, $25.

Total combined anonymous: $0 Total this week: $300 Total this year: $52,959.60 Total last year: $56,428.27 Total since 1969: $1,492,988.06

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Colleges woo students with hand-delivered acceptances FRANKLIN, Mass. (AP) — The visitors walking up her family’s driveway mystified Maya Wolf. Four wore blue jackets. One was in a lion mascot costume. Then, as it clicked, she reached to her mouth in surprise.

“Congratulations on your acceptance,” said one of the men, who introduced himself as Grant Gosselin, the admissions dean for Wheaton College. He handed Wolf an oversize-white envelope. “We’ve heard great things about you.”

Instead of mailing an acceptance letter, Wheaton College had sent its president, admissions chief, the school mascot and others to surprise the 17-year-old Wolf on Tuesday.

At the same time, nine other teams of employees from the Massachusetts school were scattered across New England delivering letters to a total of 75 students. After wiping away tears and catching her breath, Wolf thanked her visitors and beamed for a group photo.

Wheaton’s blitz was remarkable in scope, but it joins a wave of colleges that have started to deliver small batches of acceptance letters in the style of a surprise TV sweepstakes.

For the first time last year, the University of Maryland sent a bus of employees to surprise six students. A month later, the University at Albany in New York brought members of the marching band to one student’s home, while the president of Rowan University in New Jersey visited five students. The California Institute of Technology made its first personal delivery this year.

“The message we’re trying

Maya Wolf, 17, left, holds a sign to her mother, not shown, from the driveway of their home in Franklin, Massachusetts, as she is visited by Wheaton College President Dennis Hanno, center, and the school’s mascot. Wolf was presented with an acceptance letter from Wheaton College officials during the visit.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

to send is that Wheaton is a place that’s intensely personal,” Gosselin said. “We certainly won’t shy away from any exposure it brings, but the No. 1 goal is to help those students.”

Experts say the idea is spreading as schools face tougher competition for students. By adding a personal touch, colleges hope to boost the share of students who pick them, known as the yield.

Some schools choose a random sample of students to visit or limit it by geographic area. Others try to curry favor with top students who are also likely to get attention from competing institutions.

“If a hand-delivered acceptance letter gets a college a leg up on the chance of being able to enroll that student and capture the yield, they’re going to do it,” said Phillip Trout, president of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.

The vast majority of letters are still dispatched by mail or email, but in the era of social

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media, even visits to one or two students can be shared with many more. Online videos capturing scenes of shocked and overjoyed stu-

dents have attracted thousands of views.

“They’re the most popular thing that we do in our social media effort,” said Kirk Bren-

nan, director of admission at the University of Southern California, which has made personal deliveries since 2012.

“We’ve now made it a regular part of our social media strategy.”

Amid the scramble to attract more students, other aspects of the admission process are changing, too. Even the standardized letter, once a simple finale to an anxious wait, has gotten a glitzy update at many colleges.

Iowa State University sends customized videos to accepted students, starring a news anchor who congratulates them in a mock TV broadcast. Others send boxes of merchandise or mail out letters weeks earlier than in the past, hoping to reach the best students first.

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Drug Companies Nervous as Doctors and Patients Demand the AloeCure® Big Pharma execs stand to lose billions as doctors and their patients abandon drugs like Nexium® and Prilosec®. Drug free remedy could put Big Pharma out of the digestion business.

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THESE STATEMENTS HAVE NOT BEEN EVALUATED BY THE FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT INTENDED TO DIAGNOSE, TREAT, CURE OR PREVENT ANY DISEASE. INDIVIDUAL RESULTS MAY VARY ALOECURE® IS NOT A DRUG. IF YOU ARE CURRENLTY TAKING A PRESCRIPTION DRUG YOU SHOULD CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR BEFORE USE. FOR THE FULL FDA PUBLISHED WARNING ON PROTON PUMP INHIBITORS PLEASE VISIT HTTP://WWW.FDA.GOV/DOWNLOADS/FORCONSUMERS/CONSUMERUPDATES/UCM213307 *compensated for opinion

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N.G. Osteen 1843-1936 The Watchman and Southron

THE SUMTER ITEM

H.G. Osteen 1870-1955 Founder, The Item

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20 N. Magnolia St., Sumter, South Carolina 29150 • Founded October 15, 1894

President Obama is a political narcissist

BY MATTHEW CONTINETTI National Review

R

COMMENTARY

ussia announces the withdrawal of its forces from Syria. The decision is a surprise — President Obama is shocked. This is a feeling he experiences often.

He was astonished when Vladimir Putin intervened in the Syrian conflict in 2015. He was startled when ISIS conquered a fair portion of Mesopotamia in 2014. He was jarred when Putin invaded Crimea and launched a proxy war in eastern Ukraine that same year.

Rogue states pursue policies contrary to what Obama the Wise sees as their self interest, and the presidential response never varies. He is stunned. He is saddened. He is filled with sangfroid.

Bewilderment happens when reality dispels illusions. I used to think President Obama’s illusions were simply the product of his ideology, of his faith in the universality of human reason, in the idea of historical progress, of his ambivalence toward American power.

But after reading Jeffrey Goldberg’s epic, absorbing, revealing interview with the president in The Atlantic, I have come to a different conclusion.

It’s not just ideology that drives Obama’s cluelessness. It’s narcissism.

If there is a theme to Goldberg’s article, it is this: Barack Obama knows better. He knows better than the “foreignpolicy establishment” that his team snidely dismisses as controlled by Jewish and Arab money. He knows better than the elected leaders of Great Britain, France and Israel and the monarchs of Saudi Arabia and Jordan, of whom he is so contemptuous. (Angela Merkel of Germany, Goldberg reports, is “one of the few foreign leaders Obama respects.”) And he knows better than his critics, whose arguments he pores over in obsessive detail, com-

ing up with explanations, rebuttals and straw men to dismiss them.

Why does Obama know better? Not out of any intense study of or reflection on diplomatic and world history and international-relations theory. Not because he served in the military or in the diplomatic corps or held senior posts in government prior to election as president. What graces Obama with superior insight and prudence is the simple fact of his own existence. He is his own proof of his superiority.

Goldberg tells us about one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s visits to the States.

“The Israeli prime minister launched into something of a lecture about the dangers of the brutal region in which he lives, and Obama felt that Netanyahu was behaving in a condescending fashion and was also avoiding the subject at hand: peace negotiations.” So Obama interrupted him.

“Bibi, you have to understand something,” Obama said. “I’m the AfricanAmerican son of a single mother, and I live here, in this house. I live in the White House. I managed to get elected president of the United States. You think I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but I do.”

Now, Barack Obama is a tremendously accomplished man. He is clearly very intelligent and well read, he graduated from Columbia and Harvard, he is the author of two highly praised books and will no doubt write many more in the years to come, he went from nothing to president of the United States in less than a decade, and he has outfoxed his Republican opponents at nearly every turn. But his reply to Netanyahu is a colossal non sequitur, a category error of enormous proportions. It makes absolutely no sense.

In what mental universe other than the president’s does being raised in Ha-

waii and Indonesia and spending adulthood rising through the academy and U.S. political institutions grant someone a deep (or even superficial!) understanding of Zionism, of the Holocaust, of four wars for survival over 25 years, of unending terrorist violence directed toward civilians, of hijackings and kidnappings and bombings and stabbings, of SCUD attacks from Iraq, rockets from Lebanon and Gaza, incitement and de-legitimization campaigns from Tehran? Conversely, what in President Obama’s life story leads him to comprehend the Palestinians, addicted to enmity and resentment and violence, victims of institutional collapse and official corruption, awash and adrift in the worst movements of the last 100 years, from nationalism to socialism to pan-Arabism to Islamic fundamentalism?

Note the reverse snobbery when Obama tells Netanyahu, “You think I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but I do.” (My emphasis.) Maybe the elected leader of an American ally was doing nothing more than trying to explain his view of his region and the source of his reluctance to comply with the president’s demands. Or does Obama actually believe that buried in every disagreement with him is an assumption of his inferiority, disrespect for his heritage and upbringing? If that were the case, then it would be next to impossible to challenge his authority.

One would be acting always in bad faith. Which is exactly what he so often accuses his opponents of doing.

This idea of Barack Obama’s existential power, this notion that his very being is what gives him empathy with and moral authority over the world, has gripped the president and his supporters from the beginning. “What does he offer?” asked Andrew Sullivan in December 2007. “First and foremost: his face. Think of it as the most effec-

tive potential rebranding of the United States since Reagan.” His international background, son of a Kenyan and a Kansan, who spent time in Indonesia and Pakistan, is why Obama declared himself a “citizen of the world” in his 2008 Berlin speech. And his personal familiarity with Islam inspired him to deliver the Cairo speech in 2009, when, as Goldberg puts it, “he spoke about Muslims in his own family, and his childhood years in Indonesia, and confessed America’s sins even as he criticized those in the Muslim world who demonized the U.S.” Seven years later, the Greater Middle East that Obama sought to reshape by his mere appearance and oratory is a dumpster fire. State collapse, sectarian war, slavery, crucifixion, beheadings, chemical warfare and genocide characterize the region. The foreign leader who has most consistently outwitted him, Vladimir Putin, enjoys free reign in Eastern Europe and Syria. And the region of the world to which Obama hoped to “pivot” — here too for partly biographical reasons — is engulfed in a deepening territorial dispute between China and the nations it bullies.

Confidence is one thing. But Obama is more than confident. He’s narcissistic. He looks at the world and sees nothing but his reflection: rational, cool, unmoved and always right. When reality surprises him, it’s not because he’s in error. It’s because Putin or Assad or the mullahs have failed to live up to the standards he’s set for them.

Forget about them being true to themselves. They’re not being true to Barack Obama. And Barack Obama, lest we forget, is all that matters.

Matthew Continetti is the editor-in-chief of the Washington Free Beacon, where this column first appeared. © 2016

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR WE NEED TO CLOSE THE PANTRIES OF THE ‘GROWERS’ Two political camps divide the United States — the “growers” and the “eaters.” Some subscribe to the common phrase, “Steal from Peter (grower) to pay Paul (eater).”

When you steal from Peter to pay Paul, you always have the full support of Paul. In the U.S. all of the attention is given to the plight of the “Pauls.” Thus, stealing from Peter seems like a good idea. Maybe the attention should be put on how the “Peters” (growers) became Peters. Did he study more? Did he get up earlier? Did he save more? Did he risk more? Did he work more than 40 hours? The “Pauls” would lead you to believe that every “Peter” was given the farm, was lucky and was born on third base when, in fact, most “Peters” who are given the farm will become “Pauls” if given some time.

If we steal too much, too long from Peter, killing his incentive to grow; he will quit.

If we kill all of the doctors, we will all die sooner: bad for Peter and Paul. Giving Peter’s money to Paul only helps Paul until he eats it up because Paul is an eater. Allowing the Peters (Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Oprah Winfrey) to keep more money will help the Peters and the Pauls because Peter is a grower.

Unless we close the door to Peter’s pantry, Paul will never have the privilege of becoming a Peter.

As a parent (Peter) if you give your teenage son (Paul) $1,000 with no restrictions, you son (Paul) will be happy.

Paul will buy four oversized mud tires for the truck that was given him. Paul is not improved financially and Peter (the parent) is weakened financially. “And the beat goes on, and on and on”(Sonny and Cher).

COACH WALLIE JONES Sumter

HISTORY OF BLACK CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS SHOULDN’T BE ERASED Last year a senseless and horrific massacre occurred at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, executed by a mentally disturbed individual with no obvious purpose other than to fulfill his own misguided thoughts of revenge and/or hate. The perpetrator of this terrible crime had no known affiliation with any group or organization, but because at some time he attended a Living History presentation at a historic landmark and was photographed with a Southern symbol, a relentless onslaught by the media and mostly the ill-informed of society erupted to denounce and destroy all things Confederate.

The nine lives lost in this heinous act will be sorely missed, and those injured may never fully recover emotionally, yet it is hard to fathom that a single tragedy would inspire people to pursue the systemat-

ic removal and erasure of all remembrances of a period in American history from which we can all learn, no matter where your views fall.

There is a part of this story which probably will never be broadcast in the media or discussed in public gatherings, a story that most want to deny.

Resting in the Emanuel AME Church Cemetery are the remains of one Louis B. Middleton — a Black Confederate soldier. Middleton, a native Charlestonian, served under R.B. Simmons in Company A of the South Carolina Seige Train and received a Confederate pension approved in 1923.

A U.S. government VA marker was ordered and placed on his grave in 1935 by one of his descendants. An article was published about Middleton in the Charleston Post and Courier in 2013, yet for those who side with the Anti-Confederate movement would deem that his story needs to be erased.

Many deny the existence of black Confederate soldiers al-

though it is estimated that more than 70,000 men of color served the South in the Confederate army. Those in denial insist they were mere slaves forced to accompany their masters, yet the best proof is reported from eyewitnesses in the Union army.

STEPHEN L. DOUGLAS Santee Editor’s note: Because this letter exceeded the 350-word length as stated in our Editorial Page Policies which appears regularly on this page, it can be read in its entirety under Opinion on The Sumter Item’s website, www.theitem.com.

TRAFFIC LIGHT ARROWS IN TOWN NEED ADJUSTING It’s great that the town made Alice Drive wider to accommodate all the traffic as well as making turn lanes for the intersections. The problem is the traffic lights. There are left turn arrows, and in the beginning they were green for the traffic to make

the left turn before the oncoming traffic started. Over the last month or more the arrows are yellow so the oncoming cars are able to go through the intersection at the same time. This does not allow the cars to turn left until all oncoming traffic is gone. There are many times I have to wait for a light to change two, and sometimes three, times before I can turn.

I leave my house at 7:30 for work, as apparently do others, so there is quite a bit of traffic. It is very frustrating at the corner of Alice and Wise since it is a high traffic intersection; the same with Alice and Wesmark when coming from Broad Street.

If the arrows have the capability of turning green, why are they always only yellow?

The green arrow should be set early in the morning, lunch time, and evening rush hour to accommodate our ever increasing traffic.

SANDRA SELLAR Sumter

HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY? Send your letter to letters@theitem.com, drop it off at The Sumter Item office, 20 N. Magnolia St., or mail it to The Sumter Item, P.O. Box 1677, Sumter, SC 29151, along with the writer’s full name, address and telephone number (for verification purposes only). Letters that exceed 350 words will be cut accordingly in the print edition, but available in their entirety at www.theitem.com/opinion/letters_to_editor.

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(:35) The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Don Cheadle. (N) (HD) (:35) The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Ben Stiller; Bernie Sanders.

(HD) (:35) Jimmy Kimmel Live Celebrities and human-interest subjects. (HD)

Tavis Smiley (HD)

BBC World News International news.

TMZ (N) 2 Broke Girls: And the Group Head (HD) The Walking Dead: Arrow on the Doorpost Rick and the Governor decide to meet. (HD)

Charlie Rose (N) (HD) Mike & Molly: Peggy Shaves Her Legs (HD) Hot in Cleveland Friends share home. (HD)

CABLE CHANNELS 60 Days In: Unusual Suspects Under- (:56) 60 Days In: First Timers Four 60 Days In: Cell (:49) 60 Days In The First 48: Desperate Moves De- (:01) 60 Days In Planned; injured. (HD) cover in jail. (HD) enter jail. (HD) Shock (HD) (N) (HD) tectives race against time. (HD) (HD) Ter mi na tor 3: Rise of the Ma chines Twister (‘96, Drama) Helen Hunt.

A re tired storm chaser and his ex-wife lead a rag tag team of Twister (‘96, Drama) aac Helen Hunt.

A storm chaser teams up with his 180 (‘03) aac Cyborg battle. (HD) scientists on one last, dangerous run into Oklahoma’s “Tornado Alley.” (HD) ex-wife in pursuit of killer tornadoes. (HD) 100 River Monsters (HD) River Monsters (HD) (:01) Monster Squid: The Giant is Real First-ever footage. (HD) (:03) River Monsters (HD) Monster (HD) The Fam ily That Preys (‘08, Drama) aa Kathy Bates.

A scan dal filled with mar i tal in fi del ity and shady busi ness It’s a Mann’s It’s a Mann’s It’s a Mann’s (:31) It’s a Mann’s Wendy Williams 162 dealings threatens two families, so the matriarchs head out on a road trip to save them. (HD) World (N) (HD) World (N) (HD) World (HD) World (HD) Show (N) The Real Housewives of Beverly The Real Housewives of Beverly The Real Housewives of Beverly What Happens Vanderpump Rules: Reunion, Part 1 181 The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills: Objection, Your Honor Hills: Hearing is Believing Hills (N) Hills (N) (HD) 62 Shark Tank (HD) Shark Tank (HD) Shark Tank (HD) Billion Dollar Buyer (N) Shark Tank Spy training. (HD) Shark (HD) 64 AZ Primary, ID & UT (HD) AZ Primary, ID & UT (HD) AZ Primary, ID & UT (HD) AZ Primary, ID & UT (HD) AZ Primary, ID & UT (HD) AZ Primary Futurama Army Futurama Wit (:55) Tosh.0 Es ca (:27) Tosh.0: Cliff Tosh.0 Mi cro (:29) Tosh.0 (HD) Tosh.0 (N) (HD) Not Safe w/ Daily Show with Nightly Show w/ (:01) @midnight 136 of mutants. ness protection. lators. (HD) Jumper (HD) wave safe. (HD) Nikki Glaser (N) Trevor (N) Wilmore (N) (N) (HD) Austin & Ally Stuck in the Mid- BUNK’D Lost in a K.C. Undercover Best Friends BUNK’D (HD) Girl Meets World K.C. Undercover Best Friends Jessie Diamond 80 Jessie: Basket Cases (HD) (HD) dle (HD) cave. (HD) (HD) Whenever (HD) (HD) (HD) Whenever (HD) tiara. (HD) 103 Deadliest Catch (HD) Deadliest Catch (HD) Deadliest Catch: A Season in Hell (N) (HD) (:02) Deadliest Catch (HD) Deadliest (HD) 35 2016 NIT Basketball Tournament z{| (HD) 2016 NIT Basketball Tournament z{| (HD) SportsCenter (HD) Sports (HD) 39 Nation (HD) 30 for 30: I Hate Christian Laettner (HD) 30 for 30: The Two Escobars (HD) NFL Insiders (HD) 30 for 30 (HD) 109 Chopped: Pigging Out (HD) Chopped: Bacon Baskets! (HD) Chopped: Bacon Boys (HD) Chopped Bacon dishes. (HD) Chopped Suds and tots. (HD) Chopped (HD) 74 On the Record with Greta (N) The O’Reilly Factor (N) (HD) The Kelly File News updates.

Hannity (N) (HD) The O’Reilly Factor (HD) The Kelly File (6:15) The Pro posal (‘09, Com edy) aaa San dra Bull ock.

Pub lisher from Shadowhunters: Blood Calls to Stitch ers: 2.0 (N) (HD) The 700 Club Bride Wars (‘09) 131 Canada forces assistant to marry her to avoid deportation. (HD) Blood (N) (HD) aa (HD) 42 NHL Hockey: Buffalo Sabres at Carolina Hurricanes from PNC Arena z{| (HD) Postgame Braves: Building for (HD) World Poker Tour no} (HD) NHL Hockey Last Man Stand Last Man Stand Last Man Stand Last Man Stand The Mid dle (HD) The Mid dle (HD) The Mid dle: The The Mid dle (HD) Golden Moon light Golden Moon light Golden Surprise 183 ing (HD) ing (HD) ing (HD) ing (HD) Carpool (HD) madness. madness. for Miles.

112 Fixer Upper Family of four. (HD) Fixer Upper (HD) Fixer Upper (N) (HD) Hunters (HD) Hunters (N) Good Bones (N) (HD) Upper (HD) 110 Counting Cars (HD) Counting (HD) Counting (HD) Counting (N) Counting (N) (:03) Forged in Fire (N) (HD) (:03) Forged in Fire (HD) Counting (HD) Criminal Minds: True Genius Zodiac Saving Hope: Don’t Poke the Bear Saving Hope: 160 Criminal Minds: Hope Garcia’s friend Criminal Minds: Self-Fulfilling Proph- Criminal Minds: The Bittersweet winds up missing. (HD) ecy Mass suicide. (HD) Science (HD) murders. (HD) Bear attack. (HD) Breathless (HD) Dance Moms: Abby Lee Hor ror Story Dance Moms: Dance & Chat: The Dance Moms: Brynn’s Big Mo ment The Mother/Daugh ter Ex per i ment: (:02) The Mother/Daugh ter Ex per i (:02) Dance 145 Advantage for Brynn. (HD) Maddie Rumor (N) (HD) (N) (HD) Celebrity Edition (N) (HD) ment: Celebrity Edition (HD) Moms (HD) 76 Hardball with Chris (N) (HD) All in with Chris Hayes (HD) The Rachel Maddow Show (N) Lawrence O’Donnell (HD) All in with Chris Hayes (HD) Maddow (HD) 91 Thunderman Thunderman The Thundermans (HD) Full House Full House Full House Full House Friends (HD) Friends (HD) Friends (HD) 154 Ink Master: Initiation (HD) Ink Master Artists get dirty. (HD) Ink Master Teams of two. (HD) Ink Master (N) (HD) Ink Master (N) Ink Master Ink Master (5:00) Bat man Re turns (‘92, Ac tion) Su per man (‘78, Ac tion) aaa Chris to pher Reeve.

Dis patched from his doomed home planet, the leg end ary Man Col ony: Zero Day Katie gets ready for Spawn (‘97) aa 152 aaa Michael Keaton. of Steel fights crime and protects the people of Earth, while posing as a quiet reporter. a mission. (HD) (HD) The Big Bang The Big Bang The Big Bang The Big Bang Separation Anxiety: Kelia & BJ (N) Conan (N) (HD) 2 Broke Girls 156 Seinfeld: The Ju- Seinfeld: The nior Mint (HD) Smelly Car (HD) Theory (HD) Theory (HD) Theory (HD) Theory (HD) (HD) (HD) (6:00) I Con fess (‘53, Mys tery) Mont The Apart ment (‘60, Com edy) aaac Jack Lemmon.

An in sur ance clerk (:15) Sol dier in the Rain (‘63, Com edy) aac Steve McQueen.

The un M*A*S*H (‘70) 186 gomery Clift. A priest is tried. lets his boss use his apartment to rendezvous with his lover. (HD) usual friendship between two dissimilar soldiers leads to tragedy.

Doctors at war.

157 Jill & Jessa: Counting On (HD) Jill & Jessa: Counting On (N) Jill & Jessa: Counting On (N) (:04) The Willis Family (N) (HD) Jill & Jessa: Counting On (HD) Willis (HD) Rizzoli & Isles: A Shot in the Dark NBA Bas ket ball: Hous ton Rock ets at Oklahoma City Thun der from Ches a peake En ergy Arena NBA Bas ket ball: Mem phis Griz zlies at Los An geles Lakers from Staples 158 State trooper. (HD) z{| (HD) Center z{| (HD) 102 Jokers (HD) Jokers (HD) Jokers (HD) Jokers (HD) Jokers (HD) Jokers (HD) Almost (N) Jokers (HD) Almost (HD) Almost (HD) Jokers (HD) 161 Griffith (HD) Griffith (HD) Raymond (HD) (:48) Loves Raymond (HD) Raymond (HD) Raymond (HD) Raymond (HD) Queens (HD) Queens (HD) Queens (HD) (:31) Modern (:01) Modern 132 Modern Family Modern Family Modern Family Modern Family Modern Family Modern Family Chrisley Knows Chrisley Knows (:01) Modern (HD) (HD) (HD) (HD) (HD) (HD) Best (N) Best (HD) Family (HD) Family (HD) Family (HD) Law & Order: Juvenile (HD) Law & Order: Tabula Rasa (HD) Law & Order: Empire (HD) Law & Order: Ambitious (HD) Law & Order (HD) Law (HD) 172 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (‘82, Science Fiction) Dee Wallace. (HD) Outsiders: Trust (N) (HD) Outsiders: Trust (HD) Underground: War Chest (HD) Outsiders

A&E

46 130 The First 48: Hit List; Hand in Hand

AMC

48

ANPL

41

BET

61

BRAVO

47

CNBC CNN

35 33

COM

57

DISN

18

DSC ESPN ESPN2 FOOD FOXN

42 26 27 40 37

FREE

20

FSS

31

HALL

52

HGTV HIST

39 45

ION

13

LIFE

50

MSNBC NICK SPIKE

36 16 64

SYFY

58

TBS

24

TCM

49

TLC

43

TNT

23

TRUTV TVLAND

38 55

USA

25

WE WGN

68 8

‘Heartbeat’ is often ridiculous, too farfetched

BY KEVIN MCDONOUGH “Heartbeat” (9 p.m., NBC, TV14) has one great thing going for it. But it’s not enough to save this forgettable, and often ridiculous, new medical melodrama.

The great thing is its star, Melissa George. The Australian actress projects a sensuous intelligence that was on full display in the first season of the excellent and little-watched HBO series “In Treatment.”

That series fell into such cult status that we few fans feel protective about it. We want to save George from stuff like, well, “Heartbeat.”

George was also in “The Slap,” both the NBC version and the Australian series that inspired it.

Unfortunately, the makers of “Heartbeat” seem afraid we might not be interested unless her character, Dr. Alexandra Panttiere, is a masterful surgeon at the tippy-top of her super-elite profession.

She’s so good, the hospital has put her in charge of developing all new technology and major fund-raising. This allows her to spout mountains of jargon while strutting through the show’s far too many trackingshot scenes in high heels and formal wear, trailed by gaggles of drooling billionaires fighting for the chance to write big checks.

If all that weren’t nifty enough, she’s being fought over

by two — maybe three — superhot guys. OK, one of them is her ex-husband, who left her for another man. But before that, he was a rock star!

Seriously, at the end of the show — after several cuttingedge heart transplants, tears, hugs, multiple flashbacks, gunplay, love-triangles and a pickup basketball game — she attends a hospital gala in a stunning gown. There she is introduced by the voice of (an unseen) George Clooney! Yes, she’s that big a deal. And no, fans of Clooney’s old show “ER” will probably not watch “Heartbeat.”

Is Alex perfect? No. She cares too darn much! She’ll do anything for a patient, including breaking every rule and threatening to prep a recent gun suicide for heart donation surgery even before she’s wiped the blood and viscera from her ohso-pouty lips.

dered scientist’s surprising resume on “iZombie” (9 p.m., CW, TV-14).

LATE NIGHT

MICHELLE FAYE / NBC

Melissa George stars as Dr. Alex Panttiere in NBC’s new medical melodrama “Heartbeat,” premiering at 9 p.m. today.

FX, TV-MA) examines tensions within the jury.

• A new season of “Friday Night Tykes” (10 p.m., Esquire) examines a youth football league in western Pennsylvania.

TONIGHT’S OTHER HIGHLIGHTS • The hospitality wagon loses a wheel on “The Grinder” (9:30 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14).

• Secrets and double lives on “Limitless” (10 p.m., CBS, TV-14).

• Patterson subs for Boden on “Chicago Fire” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).

• David takes on a giant assignment on “Of Kings and Prophets” (10 p.m., ABC, TV-14).

• “The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story” (10 p.m.,

SERIES NOTES

• NEEDLEPUNCH • RIBBED • RUBBER BACKED

NEEDLEPUNCH & GRASS VARIETY OF COLORS

Copyright 2016 nited Feature Syndicate

A public official’s wife and mistress both have motives for murder on “NCIS” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) * Peter Gallagher guest stars on “New Girl” (8 p.m., Fox, TV-14) * Jessica worries she comes on too strong on “Fresh Off the Boat” (8 p.m., ABC, TVPG) * A rowdy night out on “The Flash” (8 p.m., CW, TV-PG) * Jimmy mentors Gerald on “Grandfathered” (8:30 p.m., Fox,

OUTDOOR CARPET FULL ROLLS & CARPET GRASS AVAILABLE! NG SPRI !

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r, TV-14) * Spring adventures on “The Real O’Neals” (8:30 p.m., ABC, TV-PG) * Campus trouble on “NCIS: New Orleans” (9 p.m., CBS, TV-14) * Revolving doors on “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” (9 p.m., Fox, r, TV-14) * Things change on “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” (9 p.m., ABC, TV-14) * A mur-

Taavi Roivas is booked on “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah” (11 p.m., Comedy Central) * Amanda Peet, Lamorne Morris and Ty Segall appear on “Conan” (11 p.m., TBS) * Ben Stiller, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Drum TAO are on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” (11:35 p.m., CBS, r) * Jimmy Fallon welcomes Don Cheadle, Saoirse Ronan and Iggy Azalea on “The Tonight Show” (11:35 p.m., NBC) * Henry Cavill, Nia Vardalos and Eric Holder visit “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (12:35 a.m., NBC) * Chelsea Handler, Jason Schwartzman, Alessia Cara and Justin Bieber appear on “The Late Late Show With James Corden” (12:35 a.m., CBS, r).

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GREAT FOR • WALKWAYS • PORCHES • PATIOS STEPS • BOATS • PONTOONS • & MUCH MORE!

1255 N. Lafayette • Sumter • 775-4391 8:30am - 5:30pm M-F • 8:30am - 12:30pm Sat

Since 1975

IN STOCK!

A Ring Around The Roses

95B MARKET STREET | SUMTER 934-8000 | www.aringaroundtheroses.com

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TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

AROUND TOWN Banquet will be held at 6 AARP will offer free tax prepap.m. on Saturday, March 26, ration from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 Do you need help filing your taxes? at Taw Caw Community p.m. on Mondays and Outreach Center, SummerWednesdays through April ton. U.S. Rep. James E. Cly13 at the Shepherd’s Center burn will speak. The Gary of Sumter, 24 Council St. Green Ensemble will proApplicants are advised to vide entertainment. Call bring with them govern(803) 485-2071. ment-issued photo IDs, Social Security cards and / or A voter registration drive, Medicare cards for anyone sponsored by New Light in the household, last Chapter No. 254 Order of year’s tax forms, W-2 and / the Eastern Stars, will be or 1099 forms, and power of held from 2 to 6 p.m. on attorney certification forms Thursday, March 31, and if they are filing for someSaturday, April 2, at Brothone else. Call Henry Dinkins erly Love Masonic Lodge, at (803) 499-4990 or Lula 531 W. Huggins St., ManKing at (803) 316-0772. ning. Call Joan Deas at (803) 225-0060, Diane Georgia at Clarendon School District One (803) 473-0081 or Catherine will conduct free vision, hearing, speech and developmental Robinson at (803) 410-0744. screenings as part of a child The Pettie Bell retirees will find effort to identify stumeet at 11 a.m. on Monday, dents with special needs.

April 4, at Golden Corral.

Screenings will be held The Sumter Chapter of the Nafrom 9 a.m. to noon at the tional Federation of the Blind Summerton Early Childhood of South Carolina will meet Center, 8 South St., Sumat 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April merton, on the following 12, at Shiloh-Randolph Thursdays: April 14; and Manor, 125 W. Bartlette St. May 12. Call Sadie Williams Transportation provided at (803) 485-2325, extension within their mileage area. If 116. you know a blind person, Broken Wings, an eight-week contact Debra Canty, chapgrief support group hosted by ter president, at (803) 775Amedisys Hospice Care, will 5792 or debra.canty@fronbe held from 10 a.m. to tier.com. Listen to the mesnoon each Saturday sage line anytime at (206) through April 23. Meetings 376-5992 for information will be held at the Amediabout the gala. Make donasys Hospice office, 198 E. tions payable and mailed to Wesmark Blvd., Suite 2, NFB Sumter Chapter, P.O. (803) 774-4036.

Box 641, Sumter, SC 29151.

The Shannon Town CommuniThe Sumter Stroke Support ty Neighborhood Watch Group Group will meet at 6 p.m. on will meet from 6 to 7 p.m.

Thursday, April 14, in the lion Thursday, March 24, at brary of Alice Drive Baptist the South HOPE Center, Church on the corner of 1125 S. Lafayette Drive.

Loring Mill Road and Wise Drive.

Lincoln High School Class of 1966 will meet at noon on Shaw Air Force Base will host Saturday, March 26, at the the Shaw Air Expo open house Trinity-Lincoln Center, 26 and air show Saturday and Council St. Plans are still Sunday, May 21-22. The free being made for the 50th event will be open to the class reunion scheduled for general public from 8 a.m.

June 3-5. to 5 p.m. both days. Visit www.shaw.af.mil/airexpo/ The Bishopville, Manning, for more information. Also, Shaw Air Force Base Alumni “like” the Shaw Air Force Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Base Facebook page at Inc. will hold a charter cerehttps://www.facebook. mony at 5 p.m. on Saturday, March 26, at the Mount Zion com/20FighterWing/ for upto-date information. Aerial Enrichment Center, 325 W. demonstration teams or Fulton St. E. Daniel Roseperformances will include: mond, Southeastern ProvU.S. Air Force Thunderbirds; ince Polemarch, will speak.

U.S. Army Black Daggers Tickets are $30 and must be parachute demo; 20th purchased in advance. For Fighter Wing Air Power; information, call Polemarch F-16 Viper; USAF Heritage Ashley Vaughn at (803) 968Flight; Canadian Air Force 2283 or Vice-Polemarch CF-18; U.S. Navy F/A-18; WarKenneth Benjamin at (803) birds (historical military 773-8514. Tickets will not be aircraft); and Gary Ward & available at the door.

Greg Connell. The acts are The Clarendon County Branch not in order of performance NAACP Annual Freedom Fund and are subject to change.

DAILY PLANNER

THE SUMTER ITEM

WEATHER

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2016

AccuWeather® five-day forecast for Sumter TODAY

TONIGHT

WEDNESDAY

THURSDAY

FRIDAY

SATURDAY

Warmer with plenty of sunshine

Clear and moonlit

Sunny, breezy and pleasant

Partly sunny and warm

Chance of a morning t-storm

Clouds limiting sun

69°

43°

78° / 53°

82° / 58°

76° / 48°

74° / 53°

Chance of rain: 5%

Chance of rain: 0%

Chance of rain: 5%

Chance of rain: 25%

Chance of rain: 30%

Chance of rain: 25%

S 6-12 mph

SSW 4-8 mph

SW 10-20 mph

S 10-20 mph

WSW 7-14 mph

ENE 7-14 mph

TODAY’S SOUTH CAROLINA WEATHER

Gaffney 65/45 Spartanburg 66/44

Greenville 67/43

Columbia 70/42

Temperatures shown on map are today’s highs and tonight’s lows.

Sumter 69/43

IN THE MOUNTAINS Aiken 67/40

ON THE COAST

Charleston 69/50

Today: Plenty of sun. High 62 to 68.

Wednesday: Comfortable with plenty of sunshine. High 72 to 77.

SUMTER THROUGH 4 P.M. YESTERDAY

Temperature High Low Normal high Normal low Record high Record low

59° 40° 68° 42° 90° in 1982 26° in 1960 trace 0.68" 2.69" 10.47" 13.92" 10.24"

NATIONAL CITIES City Atlanta Chicago Dallas Detroit Houston Los Angeles New Orleans New York Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix San Francisco Wash., DC

Today Hi/Lo/W 68/45/s 61/46/pc 75/62/s 58/47/c 73/62/s 69/52/pc 71/60/s 53/46/pc 75/54/s 57/47/pc 80/54/s 62/49/pc 62/48/pc

LAKE LEVELS Full pool 360 76.8 75.5 100

Lake Murray Marion Moultrie Wateree

SUN AND MOON 7 a.m. yest.

357.67 75.59 75.07 97.05

24-hr chg -0.04 -0.07 -0.03 -0.11

RIVER STAGES

Precipitation 24 hrs ending 4 p.m. yest.

Month to date Normal month to date Year to date Last year to date Normal year to date

Wed. Hi/Lo/W 73/55/pc 50/41/r 83/47/t 51/43/r 77/54/pc 75/55/s 78/66/pc 67/49/pc 80/61/s 69/49/pc 77/52/pc 65/51/s 72/54/pc

Myrtle Beach 65/52

Manning 69/43

Today: Mostly sunny. Winds southwest 6-12 mph. A moonlit sky.

Wednesday: Mostly sunny and nice. Winds southwest 8-16 mph.

LOCAL ALMANAC

Florence 68/43

Bishopville 68/42

River Black River Congaree River Lynches River Saluda River Up. Santee River Wateree River

Flood 7 a.m. 24-hr stage yest. chg 12 8.42 -0.11 19 4.26 -1.71 14 6.76 +0.22 14 3.83 -0.11 80 78.99 +0.12 24 10.62 +0.81

Sunrise 7:22 a.m.

Moonrise 7:04 p.m.

Sunset Moonset

7:35 p.m.

6:56 a.m.

Full

Last

New

First

Mar. 23

Mar. 31

Apr. 7

Apr. 13

TIDES AT MYRTLE BEACH

Today Wed.

High 9:17 a.m.

9:43 p.m.

9:55 a.m.

10:21 p.m.

Ht. 3.1 3.1 3.0 3.1

Low 3:48 a.m.

4:09 p.m.

4:29 a.m.

4:45 p.m.

Ht. -0.2 -0.1 -0.2 -0.1

REGIONAL CITIES City Asheville Athens Augusta Beaufort Cape Hatteras Charleston Charlotte Clemson Columbia Darlington Elizabeth City Elizabethtown Fayetteville

Today Hi/Lo/W 64/37/s 70/41/s 69/39/s 68/49/s 59/55/s 69/50/s 66/45/s 69/43/s 70/42/s 66/44/s 62/49/s 67/46/s 67/44/s

Wed. Hi/Lo/W 72/47/s 75/51/s 77/48/s 77/57/s 69/61/s 79/57/s 74/51/s 74/51/s 78/52/s 76/53/s 74/55/s 77/54/s 76/53/s

City Florence Gainesville Gastonia Goldsboro Goose Creek Greensboro Greenville Hickory Hilton Head Jacksonville, FL La Grange Macon Marietta

Today Hi/Lo/W 68/43/s 72/46/s 67/46/s 65/46/s 69/47/s 64/46/s 67/43/s 63/42/s 64/52/s 70/48/s 70/43/s 70/40/s 68/42/s

Wed. Hi/Lo/W 78/52/s 80/57/s 74/53/s 75/55/s 78/57/s 73/52/s 74/49/s 72/50/s 73/58/s 78/57/s 75/56/pc 76/51/s 72/54/pc

City Marion Mt. Pleasant Myrtle Beach Orangeburg Port Royal Raleigh Rock Hill Rockingham Savannah Spartanburg Summerville Wilmington Winston-Salem

Today Hi/Lo/W 64/34/s 67/52/s 65/52/s 68/43/s 66/51/s 65/44/s 66/44/s 67/43/s 70/48/s 66/44/s 68/46/s 67/50/s 64/45/s

Wed. Hi/Lo/W 73/49/s 76/59/s 75/59/s 78/53/s 75/59/s 75/52/s 74/52/s 76/53/s 78/56/s 73/51/s 77/56/s 77/57/s 74/52/s

Weather(W): s–sunny, pc–partly cloudy, c–cloudy, sh–showers, t–thunderstorms, r–rain, sf–snow flurries, sn–snow, i–ice

SCREEN ROOMS • SUN ROOMS • AWNINGS

PUBLIC AGENDA CLARENDON MEMORIAL HOSPITAL BOARD OF TRUSTEES Today, 6 p.m., hospital board room SUMTER COUNTY COUNCIL Today, 6 p.m., Sumter County Council Chambers

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Don’t waffle EUGENIA LAST when it comes to your professional goals. If you want to excel or make a change, take action and make it happen. It’s up to you to fuel your own fire and strive to reach your dreams.

The last word in astrology

SUMTER CITY-COUNTY PLANNING COMMISSION Wednesday, 3 p.m., fourth floor, Sumter Opera House, Council Chambers

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Delve into intriguing situations and look for ways to pursue what fascinates you. Work toward a goal that will impress your peers, employers or teachers. It’s up to you to bring about the changes that will improve your life.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Listen to the voice of reason and discuss your plans with someone able to influence your decision and help you make your dreams come true.

A joint venture is likely to pay off.

Sharing will propel you forward.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): What you put out, you will get back in spades. Don’t hesitate to offer suggestions or pitch in to help a cause. Your intuitive intelligence will allow you to shine and motivate others to help you make a difference.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Listen, assess the situation you face and make choices based on what is in your best interest. You cannot give in to emotional manipulation or temptation. If you desire change, make sure your motives are genuine.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Gather information and be certain before making a move that will have an impact on your reputation.

Don’t let anyone lead you down a path of temptation. Recognize what is in your best interest. Be willing to say “no.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Surround yourself with creative individuals who will encourage you to explore your own ideas. Make romance and collaboration with others a priority, but don’t go into debt trying to keep up with others.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Check over your plans, investments and any upcoming legal or medical procedures. It’s always better to be safe and in control. Don’t let someone’s unexpected changes send you on a wild goose chase.

Ride out the storm.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Protect against loss or being taken advantage of by someone manipulative. Put more emphasis on personal change, learning and expanding your friendships with those who will help you reach your goals. Take a proactive position when it comes to your beliefs.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Believe in yourself and what you can accomplish. Don’t let anyone’s negativity hold you back or cause you to underestimate what you are capable of. Offer love and kindness, but don’t make sacrifices that will deter your success.

Visit our Show Room 805 N. Wise Drive 803-773-9545 www.ventulite.com established in 1935

PICTURES FROM THE PUBLIC Handyman Joshua Fraiser Sr. is ready to begin cleaning up debris left from the ice and snow storm of 1973 at Borough House Plantation in Stateburg. Photo submitted by Mr. Fraiser’s daughters, Josephine Fraiser and Janie L. Fraiser Colbert.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Make personal changes that will encourage you to look for a job that will bring you a greater sense of satisfaction. Someone or something from your past will help you recognize what you want to see unfold in your life.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Partnerships will pose limitations if you let anger take over. Don’t say or do something you’ll regret.

Treating others with a little love and compassion will improve your situation.

HAVE YOU TAKEN PICTURES OF INTERESTING, EXCITING, BEAUTIFUL OR HISTORICAL PLACES? Would you like to share those images with your fellow Sumter Item readers? E-mail your hi-resolution jpegs to sandrah@theitem.com, or mail to Sandra Holbert c/o The Sumter Item, P.O. Box 1677, Sumter, SC 29150. Include clearly printed or typed name of photographer and photo details. Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of your photo. Amateur photographers only please.

SECTION

b

Tuesday, March 22, 2016 Call: (803) 774-1241 | E-mail: sports@theitem.com

USC softball

PREP softball

Sumter faces key early test SHS softball travels to West Florence

By DENNIS BRUNSON dennis@theitem.com

Photo provided

The ball leaves the barrel of the bat of South Carolina’s Ansley Ard for a game-winning walk-off home run in the Gamecocks’ 5-4 victory over Georgia on Sunday in Columbia. Ard was named the Southeastern Conference Player of the Week on Monday.

Walk-off nets Ard SEC Player of Week

By DENNIS BRUNSON dennis@theitem.com

Wednesday. Because of her performance, Ard earned Southeastern Conference Ansley Ard has made a Player of the Week honors. habit of getting game-winArd did more than hit ning hits for the University homers during the week of South Caroli- though. She had a .600 averna softball team age and reached base at a this season. In .636 clip while leading the the past week, team with five runs scored two game winand six runs batted in. After ners have come winning the first game via the long ball. against Buffalo with the ARD Ard, the senior slam, Ard had a game-tying centerfielder RBI on a bunt single in Game who was a standout at Wil2, which USC won. son Hall, hit a walk-off Before closing out the homer to beat Georgia 5-4 on Georgia game with the bomb, Sunday after hitting a grand she scored the game-tying slam to beat Buffalo on run two innings earlier after

leading off the fifth with a single.

“Honestly, I’ve said a little prayer before I go to bat to ask for courage and to be in the moment and take my cuts,” Ard said when asked after the win over UGA to explain her success in hitting in the clutch. “God stays with you through all of it.

Getting to those moments, the rest of the team gets us there. It’s a full team effort.”

Ard led the Gamecocks with a .418 batting average entering Monday’s series finale against Georgia. She had three homers, two doubles and a triple among her

USC women’s Basketball

Mitchell powers USC into tourney’s Sweet 16

23 hits and had 17 RBI. She was 4-for-4 in stolen base attempts and had three sacrifice bunts.

The win on Sunday was USC’s first SEC win after losing its first four games. Still, it was 22-6 overall and Ard likes the makeup of the team.

“We’re so excited,” said Ard, who also had game-winning hits agaisnt Coastal Carolina and Western Carolina. “All of us are fired up, and it will take all of us to get there. We have the talent.

I can’t wait to see what this team does the rest of the season.”

The Sumter High School varsity softball team took its fair share of lumps last season while starting a large group of freshmen and sophomores.

The Lady Gamecocks were just 6-12 overall and 1-9 in Region VI-4A. That decision, however, appears to be paying dividends, at least in the early going of the season. SHS is off to a 5-1 start, but more importantly, is 2-0 in the 10-game region schedule.

Sumter has a chance to establish itself as the region frontrunner today as it travels to Florence to take on West Florence at 7 p.m. The Lady Knights are off to a 2-0 region start as well and are 4-4 overall.

“It would be very important for us if we could get this win,” said second-year Lady Gamecocks head coach Donald Flippin. “There were so many games that we were in last year, but we just couldn’t pull it out. Our goal is to move up to where we’re one of the top four teams in the region so we’re in the (state) playoffs. To know that we could be in the lead is good for the confidence of our team.”

SHS, which opened its region schedule with a 10-6 victory over Socastee and a 6-0 triumph over Carolina Forest, returns six starters from last year. They include senior shortstop Chae Hutchison, junior pitcher Hannah Bettencourt, junior leftfielder Katelyn Browder, junior centerfielder Tara Rhodes, sophomore second baseman Chelsie

See softball, Page B2

MEn’S ncaa tOURNAMENT

By PETE IACOBELLI AP Sports Writer COLUMBIA — South Carolina’s Tiffany Mitchell found the perfect way to say goodbye to the huge crowd at Colonial Life Arena — with one last stellar showing in the NCAA Tournament.

Mitchell scored 16 of her 20 points in the first two quarters to help the topseeded Gamecocks breeze past No. 9 seed Kansas State 73-47 on Sunday night and reach the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in the past five seasons.

Mitchell, a former twotime Southeastern Conference player of the year, powered South Carolina when this season’s league player of the year in A’ja Wilson, picked up two fouls and left the court less than two minutes in. “Our post players are a big part of what we do so when one goes out, we’ve got to pick it up on the defensive end so we can create some offense,” Mitchell said.

That’s exactly what Mitchell did.

She stepped in front of a Kansas State pass for a breakaway layup moments after Wilson went to the bench — and it seemed like the whole fan base of 10,048

Sue Ogrocki/The Associated Press

Northern Iowa head coach Ben Jacobson can’t bear to watch the closing seconds of regulation in Sunday’s 92-88 double-overtime loss to Texas A&M in the NCAA Tournament in Oklahoma City.

Historic last-minute comeback lifts A&M

By KURT VOIGT The Associated Press

Richard Shiro/The Associated Press

USC’s Tiffany Mitchell waves to fans after the Gamecocks’ 73-47 NCAA Tournament win over Kansas State on Sunday. exhaled and began to cheer once more.

When Kansas State (19-13) tied things at 7-all, Mitchell slipped through three defenders, hit a layup and the following foul shot to complete a three-point play and put South Carolina (33-1) in front to stay.

She came out of the game

early in the fourth quarter with South Carolina up by 30 and received a huge ovation and hugs from her teammates.

“There were a lot of emotions,” Mitchell said. “I was trying not to cry.”

There could be more big

See women, Page B4

onds — to defeat the Panthers 92-88 in double overtime on Sunday night.

OKLAHOMA CITY — “Craziest game I’ve been a Northern Iowa appeared all part of from beginning to but ready to book its plane end,” Caruso said. “Just an tickets to California for next amazing game. This is what week’s Sweet 16.

March is about.”

That was before Texas A&M The previous NCAA record put together the biggest lastfor coming back from a deficit minute comeback in NCAA Di- in the last minute was 11 vision I history. points, done by UNLV in 2005 Led by Alex Caruso’s 25 and Canisius in December. points and 22 more from DanCrazy is a mild way to put uel House in the second half the finish, something the Panand overtimes, the third-seedthers (23-13) were accustomed ed Aggies (28-8) rallied from 12 to after reaching Sunday’s secpoints down with 44 seconds ond-round matchup thanks to remaining in regulation — 10 See Comeback, Page B3 down with less than 30 sec-

B2

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sports

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Scoreboard TV, Radio

TODAY 6 a.m. – Major League Exhibition Baseball: Los Angeles Angels vs. Milwaukee from Phoenix (MLB NETWORK).

9 a.m. – Major League Exhibition Baseball: Colorado vs. Texas from Surprise, Ariz. (MLB NETWORK).

9:30 a.m. – College Football: Florida Pro Day from Gainesville, Fla. (SEC NETWORK).

1:30 p.m. – Major League Exhibition Baseball: Tampa Bay vs. Cuban National Team from Havana (ESPN).

5 p.m. – Major League Exhibition Baseball: Texas vs. San Diego from Peoria, Ariz. (MLB NETWORK).

6:05 p.m. – Talk Show: Sports Talk (WPUB-FM 102.7, WDXY-FM 105.9, WDXY-AM 1240).

7 p.m. – College Softball: Utah Valley at Brigham Young (BYUTV).

7 p.m. – College Basketball: National Invitation Tournament Quarterfinal Game – St. Mary’s (Calif.) at Valparaiso (ESPN).

7 p.m. – NHL Hockey: Buffalo at Carolina (FOX SPORTSOUTH).

7 p.m. – College Baseball: Tennessee Tech at Tennessee (SEC NETWORK).

7:30 p.m. – NBA Basketball: Charlotte at Brooklyn (FOX SPORTS SOUTHEAST).

8 p.m. – NBA Basketball: Houston at Oklahoma City (TNT).

8:30 p.m. – NHL Hockey: Los Angeles at Minnesota (NBC SPORTS NETWORK).

9 p.m. – College Basketball: National Invitation Tournament Quarterfinal Game – Creighton at Brigham Young (ESPN).

9 p.m. – Major League Exhibition Baseball: Los Angeles Dodgers vs.

Kansas City from Surprise, Ariz. (MLB NETWORK).

10:30 p.m. – NBA Basketball: Memphis at Los Angeles Lakers (TNT).

Midnight – Major League Exhibition Baseball: San Francisco vs. Arizona from Scottsdale, Ariz.

nba Standings

By The Associated Press

EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division

Toronto Boston New York Brooklyn Philadelphia Southeast Division

Atlanta Miami Charlotte Washington Orlando Central Division

x-Cleveland Indiana Chicago Detroit Milwaukee

W L Pct GB 48 21 .696 — 40 30 .571 8½ 28 43 .394 21 19 50 .275 29 9 61 .129 39½ W L Pct GB 41 29 .586 — 40 29 .580 ½ 39 30 .565 1½ 34 35 .493 6½ 29 40 .420 11½ W L Pct GB 49 20 .710 — 36 33 .522 13 35 33 .515 13½ 36 34 .514 13½ 30 40 .429 19½

WESTERN CONFERENCE Southwest Division

W L Pct GB y-San Antonio 59 10 .855 — Memphis 40 30 .571 19½ Dallas 35 35 .500 24½ Houston 35 35 .500 24½ New Orleans 26 43 .377 33 Northwest Division

W L Pct GB y-Oklahoma City 48 22 .686 — Portland 36 35 .507 12½ Utah 34 36 .486 14 Denver 29 41 .414 19 Minnesota 22 47 .319 25½ Pacific Division

W L Pct GB y-Golden State 62 7 .899 — L.A. Clippers 43 26 .623 19 Sacramento 27 42 .391 35 Phoenix 19 50 .275 43 L.A. Lakers 14 55 .203 48 x-clinched playoff spot y-clinched division

Sunday’s Games

Dallas 132, Portland 120, OT Toronto 105, Orlando 100 New Orleans 109, L.A. Clippers 105 Boston 120, Philadelphia 105 Utah 94, Milwaukee 85 Sacramento 88, New York 80

Monday’s Games

Denver at Cleveland, 7 p.m.

Philadelphia at Indiana, 7 p.m.

San Antonio at Charlotte, 7 p.m.

Orlando at Boston, 7:30 p.m.

Milwaukee at Detroit, 7:30 p.m.

Sacramento at Chicago, 8 p.m.

Golden State at Minnesota, 8 p.m.

Washington at Atlanta, 8 p.m.

Memphis at Phoenix, 10 p.m.

Tuesday’s Games

Charlotte at Brooklyn, 7:30 p.m.

Miami at New Orleans, 8 p.m.

Houston at Oklahoma City, 8 p.m.

Memphis at L.A. Lakers, 10:30 p.m.

nhl Standings

By The Associated Press

EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA Florida 72 40 23 9 89 205 177 Tampa Bay 72 41 26 5 87 196 171 Boston 73 39 26 8 86 216 197 Detroit 72 36 25 11 83 184 190 Ottawa 73 34 31 8 76 211 223 Montreal 73 33 34 6 72 192 209 Buffalo 73 29 34 10 68 173 198 Toronto 71 25 35 11 61 169 207 Metropolitan Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA x-Washington 71 51 15 5 107 227 168 Pittsburgh 72 40 24 8 88 204 179 N.Y. Rangers 72 40 24 8 88 203 190 N.Y. Islanders 70 38 23 9 85 196 177 Philadelphia 70 34 24 12 80 182 189 New Jersey 73 35 31 7 77 166 189 Carolina 72 31 27 14 76 175 195 Columbus 72 29 35 8 66 188 223

auto racing Washington at Ottawa, 7:30 p.m.

Detroit at Tampa Bay, 7:30 p.m.

Vancouver at Winnipeg, 8 p.m.

Los Angeles at Minnesota, 8:30 p.m.

Dallas at Chicago, 8:30 p.m.

Edmonton at Arizona, 10 p.m.

St. Louis at San Jose, 10:30 p.m.

golf SCORES

By The Associated Press Bay Hill-Arnold Palmer Invitational Sunday At Orlando, Fla. Purse: $6.3 million Yardage: 7,419; Par 72 Jason Day (500), $1,134,000 65-70-70—271 -17 Kevin Chappell (300), $680,400 68-67-69—272 -16 Troy Merritt (163), $365,400 69-67-71—274 -14 Henrik Stenson (163), $365,400 66-70-71—274 -14 Zach Johnson (110), $252,000 70-68-68—276 -12 Kiradech Aphibarnrat, $211,050 69-73-65—277 -11 Jamie Lovemark (92), $211,050 68-71-70—277 -11 Hideki Matsuyama (92), $211,050 69-71-67—277 -11

Tuesday’s Games

Buffalo at Carolina, 7 p.m.

Philadelphia at Columbus, 7 p.m.

Anaheim at Montreal, 7:30 p.m.

676770706870-

MLB Spring Training

By The Associated Press

AMERICAN LEAGUE

Toronto Detroit Chicago Los Angeles Houston Texas Minnesota Oakland Cleveland New York Tampa Bay Seattle Kansas City Boston Baltimore

W L Pct 12 4 .750 14 7 .667 10 7 .588 10 7 .588 11 8 .579 11 8 .579 9 9 .500 8 8 .500 9 10 .474 8 9 .471 8 9 .471 9 11 .450 10 13 .435 9 12 .429 5 12 .294

NATIONAL LEAGUE

W L Pct Arizona 16 4 .800 Washington 13 4 .765 Philadelphia 14 5 .737 Los Angeles 10 8 .556 Milwaukee 9 8 .529 Colorado 8 8 .500 Cincinnati 9 11 .450 San Francisco 9 11 .450 New York 7 9 .438 Miami 7 10 .412 St. Louis 7 10 .412 Chicago 6 13 .316 Pittsburgh 6 13 .316 San Diego 5 12 .294 Atlanta 6 15 .286 NOTE: Split-squad games count in the standings; games against non-major league teams do not.

Monday’s Games

Washington 5, Houston 3 Atlanta 7, Pittsburgh (ss) 3 Philadelphia 4, Detroit 3 Boston 4, St. Louis 3 Pittsburgh (ss) 2, Minnesota 0 Miami 2, N.Y. Mets 1 Oakland 6, San Francisco 4 Seattle 6, L.A. Dodgers 3 Milwaukee (ss) 4, L.A. Angels 3 Cleveland 9, Chicago White Sox 4 Colorado 9, Texas 6 Milwaukee (ss) vs. Arizona (n) Cincinnati vs. San Diego (n)

Johnson gets past Harvick in OT

By GREG BEACHAM AP Sports Writer

auto club 400 Results

FONTANA, Calif. — Jimmie Johnson somehow saved his fastest lap for last, and Southern California’s favorite racing son soared to another historic victory.

Johnson pulled away in overtime to beat Kevin Harvick on Sunday for his record sixth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at Fontana.

With his 77th career victory, Johnson passed Dale Earnhardt for seventh place in NASCAR annals. And he did it in style: Johnson was third on the late restart, but he surged past leader Denny Hamlin while giving a little bump to Harvick before sidedrafting and pulling away.

After showcasing his famed skills to snare another landmark win, the 40-year-old Johnson got a bit reflective when asked about his place in the sport.

“I feel like physically and mentally, I’m the best that I’ve ever been in my career,” the six-time series champion said. “I’m in the space I want to be in, which makes me want to stick around and do this for a lot of years. There’s no guarantees about when you’re going to win and have success, so I’ve been very, very fortunate to win 77 of these things, which blows my mind.”

Johnson finished with his fastest lap of the race to claim his second overtime win of the young season, adding Fontana to Atlanta.

He has won three of his last eight races after a 20-race winless skid in his Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

Harvick was in position to win for the second consecutive week before second-place Kyle Busch blew a tire with two laps to go. Hamlin got off pit road first for his first lead of the race, but Johnson’s fresh tires and cleverness gave him the speed needed to get ahead.

“I knew we had a great car, and the caution fell at a bad time,” Johnson said.

“The run before, I just didn’t have the tires on the car to race with those guys. I got a great run off of Turn 2, and I thought, ‘Man, I’ve got a shot at this thing,’ which I didn’t expect to have. Harvick has been so fast.”

Johnson is from El Cajon, just outside San Diego. He won at Fontana in 2009 and 2010, but hadn’t finished higher than ninth in his last four races at his closest thing to a hometown track,

Jose Huerta/The Victor Valley Daily Press/The Associated Press

Crew chief Chad Knaus (left) and driver Jimmie Johnson celebrate after Johnson won the Auto Club 400 on Sunday.

NASCAR Sprint CupSunday At Auto Club Speedway Fontana, Calif.

Lap length: 2 miles (Start position in parentheses) 1. (19) Jimmie Johnson, Chevrolet, 205 laps, 44 points.

2. (2) Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet, 205, 41.

3. (3) Denny Hamlin, Toyota, 205, 39.

4. (9) Joey Logano, Ford, 205, 38.

5. (18) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ford, 205, 36.

6. (8) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet, 205, 36.

7. (5) Carl Edwards, Toyota, 205, 35.

8. (11) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet, 205, 33.

9. (15) Brad Keselowski, Ford, 205, 32.

10. (10) Jamie McMurray, Chevrolet, 205, 31.

11. (27) Dale Earnhardt Jr., Chevrolet, 205, 30.

12. (21) Brian Scott, Ford, 205, 29.

13. (24) Brian Vickers, Chevrolet, 205, 28.

14. (4) Ryan Newman, Chevrolet, 205, 27.

15. (13) Paul Menard, Chevrolet, 205, 26.

16. (34) Landon Cassill, Ford, 205, 25.

17. (23) Casey Mears, Chevrolet, 205, 24.

18. (29) Clint Bowyer, Chevrolet, 205, 23.

19. (20) Matt Kenseth, Toyota, 205, 23.

20. (7) Trevor Bayne, Ford, 205, 21.

21. (25) Aric Almirola, Ford, 205, 20.

22. (35) David Ragan, Toyota, 205, 19.

23. (28) Regan Smith, Chevrolet, 205, 18.

24. (1) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet, 205, 17.

25. (6) Kyle Busch, Toyota, 205, 16.

26. (36) Cole Whitt, Chevrolet, 205, 15.

27. (33) Matt DiBenedetto, Toyota, 205, 14.

28. (12) Kasey Kahne, Chevrolet, 205, 13.

29. (38) Michael Annett, Chevrolet, 205, 12.

30. (26) Kurt Busch, Chevrolet, 205, 11.

31. (30) Michael McDowell, Chevrolet, 205, 10.

32. (17) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota, 204, 10.

33. (16) Chris Buescher, Ford, 204, 8.

34. (39) Jeffrey Earnhardt, Ford, 200, 7.

35. (14) Ryan Blaney, Ford, accident, 195, 6.

36. (37) Josh Wise, Chevrolet, 195, 5.

37. (22) Greg Biffle, Ford, engine, 146, 4.

38. (31) Danica Patrick, Chevrolet, accident, 120, 3.

39. (32) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet, accident, 46, 2.

Race Statistics Average Speed of Race Winner: 137.213 mph.

Time of Race: 2 hours, 59 minutes, 17 seconds.

Margin of Victory: 0.772 seconds.

Caution Flags: 6 for 33 laps.

Lead Changes: 26 among 8 drivers.

Lap Leaders: K.Harvick 1-28; C.Edwards 29-33; K.Harvick 34; C.Edwards 35-36; K.Harvick 37-52; J.Logano 53; K.Harvick 54-70; M.Truex Jr. 71-77; J.Johnson 78-82; C.Elliott 83; M.Kenseth 84-85; K.Harvick 86-105; J.Johnson 106-109; M.Truex Jr. 110; K.Harvick 111-113; J.Johnson 114-123; M.Truex Jr. 124-136; K.Harvick 137-157; J.Johnson 158159; C.Edwards 160-161; J.Johnson 162-163; J.Logano 164-165; K.Harvick 166-200; D.Hamlin 201-202; K.Harvick 203; J.Johnson 204-205.

Leaders Summary (Driver, Times Led, Laps Led): K.Harvick, 9 times for 142 laps; J.Johnson, 6 times for 25 laps; M.Truex Jr., 3 times for 21 laps; C.Edwards, 3 times for 9 laps; J.Logano, 2 times for 3 laps; D. Hamlin, 1 time for 2 laps; M.Kenseth, 1 time for 2 laps; C.Elliott, 1 time for 1 lap.

Wins: J.Johnson, 2; D.Hamlin, 1; K.Harvick, 1; B.Keselowski, 1.

Top 16 in Points: 1. K.Harvick, 195; 2. J.Johnson, 184; 3. C.Edwards, 171; 4. D.Hamlin, 170; 5. Ky.Busch, 170; 6. J.Logano, 165; 7. Ku.Busch, 148; 8. D.Earnhardt Jr., 145; 9. B.Keselowski, 142; 10. A.Dillon, 139; 11.

M.Truex Jr., 127; 12. J.McMurray, 125; 13. A.Almirola, 120; 14. R.Stenhouse Jr., 119; 15. M.Kenseth, 113; 16. C.Elliott, 110.

one hour east of Los Angeles.

Harvick finished second to Johnson for the ninth consecutive time that the California natives have occupied the top two spots.

“That was the worst it’s taken off on the restarts,” Harvick said of the last lap.

“But we weren’t good on the restarts for four or five laps unless we were by ourselves.

We weren’t able to drive it in like I needed to. Just didn’t have the front tires turning, and then the back wouldn’t grip. Still a good day for us.”

Hamlin was third, followed by Joey Logano and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Martin Truex Jr. was in contention until late contact with Logano, who left Truex furious.

The combination of Auto Club Speedway’s aged asphalt and NASCAR’s new low-downforce package led to the excellent entertainment value that most drivers expected in the closest race to Hollywood. Fontana showcased uncommonly close racing and multiple passes on one of the series’ fastest tracks.

and eighth-grader Gabby Kirkman in right field. Posey will be out of the lineup today due to the flu.

“I can’t say this is a surprise to me,” Flippin said of the team’s fast start. “I knew we had the talent to do it.

We’ve been working really hard. We’re just trying to take it one game at a time.

These girls have continued to work hard.”

If Sumter continues to get performances in the circle from Bettencourt close to the one she had against Car-

olina Forest on Friday, it will be very tough to defeat.

Bettencourt tossed a no-hitter and allowed just one base runner, which reached on a first-inning error. Still, Bettencourt only had two strikeouts so that means the defense made 19 plays behind her to record the outs.

“Hannah struggled with Carolina Forest last season, so she was really focused,” Flippin said. “She was tough on every batter, and she knew her defense was going to make plays behind her.”

Tuesday’s Games

Boston vs. Miami at Jupiter, Fla., 1:05 p.m.

Minnesota (ss) vs. Philadelphia at Clearwater, Fla., 1:05 p.m.

Atlanta vs. Houston at Kissimmee, Fla., 1:05 p.m.

Toronto vs. Detroit at Lakeland, Fla., 1:05 p.m.

Baltimore vs. Minnesota (ss) at Fort Myers, Fla., 1:05 p.m.

San Francisco (ss) vs. Chicago White Sox at Glendale, Ariz., 4:05 p.m.

Chicago Cubs vs. Cincinnati at Goodyear, Ariz., 4:05 p.m.

Milwaukee vs. Colorado at Scottsdale, Ariz., 4:10 p.m.

Oakland vs. L.A. Angels at Tempe, Ariz., 4:10 p.m.

Texas vs. San Diego at Peoria, Ariz., 4:10 p.m.

N.Y. Mets vs. N.Y. Yankees at Tampa, Fla., 6:35 p.m.

L.A. Dodgers vs. Kansas City at Surprise, Ariz., 9:05 p.m.

San Francisco (ss) vs. Arizona at Scottsdale, Ariz., 10:10 p.m.

Softball

From Page B1

Logan and sophomore third baseman Anna Copeland.

Browder has yet to play in the regular season after suffering a concussion in a preseason tournament. Sophomore Alexis Jacobs has been filling ably for her, according to Flippin. The new starters are sophomore Erin McCaffrey at catcher, sophomore Kaylee Posey at first base

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Sunday’s Games

Monday’s Games

68-

Tucson Conquistadores Sunday At Tucson, Ariz.

Purse: $1.7 million Yardage: 7,143; Par 72 Woody Austin, $255,000 6570-65—200 -16 Jim Carter, $149,600 70-63-68—201 -15 Bernhard Langer, $122,400 6966-67—202 -14 Stephen Ames, $90,950 6967-69—205 -11 Marco Dawson, $90,950 6867-70—205 -11

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Florida at N.Y. Rangers, 7 p.m.

Philadelphia at N.Y. Islanders, 7:30 p.m.

Calgary at Toronto, 7:30 p.m.

Los Angeles at Nashville, 8 p.m.

66-

JJTBC Founders Cup Sunday At Phoenix Purse: $1.5 million Yardage: 6,601; Par 72 Second Round a-denotes amateur Sei Young Kim, $225,000 6366-70-62—261 -27 Lydia Ko, $138,527 70-67-64-65— 266 -22 Jacqui Concolino, $100,492 6864-68-68—268 -20 Megan Khang, $54,379 68-69-66-66— 269 -19 Brooke M. Henderson, $54,379 6869-65-67—269 -19 Paula Creamer, $54,379 69-65-67-68— 269 -19 Stacy Lewis, $54,379 70-65-64-70— 269 -19 Eun-Hee Ji, $54,379 66-67-65-71— 269 -19

Central Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA Dallas 73 43 21 9 95 236 211 St. Louis 73 42 22 9 93 194 185 Chicago 73 42 24 7 91 203 179 Nashville 72 36 23 13 85 197 185 Colorado 73 38 31 4 80 198 204 Minnesota 73 34 28 11 79 194 186 Winnipeg 72 29 37 6 64 184 216 Pacific Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GA x-Los Angeles 71 44 22 5 93 196 160 Anaheim 71 40 22 9 89 182 164 San Jose 72 41 25 6 88 214 185 Arizona 72 31 34 7 69 188 217 Calgary 72 31 35 6 68 200 223 Vancouver 71 27 32 12 66 167 205 Edmonton 75 29 39 7 65 181 219 NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss. x-clinched playoff spot Minnesota 3, Chicago 2, SO Anaheim 3, Winnipeg 2, OT New Jersey 2, Columbus 1 Pittsburgh 6, Washington 2 Calgary 4, Montreal 1 Colorado 3, Edmonton 2 San Jose 3, Arizona 0

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men’s basketball tournaments NCAA

FIRST FOUR At UD Arena Dayton, Ohio Tuesday, March 15 Florida Gulf Coast 96, Fairleigh Dickinson 65 Wichita State 70, Vanderbilt 50 Wednesday, March 16 Holy Cross 59, Southern 55 Michigan 67, Tulsa 62 EAST REGIONAL Round of 64 Thursday, March 17 At PNC Arena Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina 83, Florida Gulf Coast 67 Providence 70, Southern Cal 69 At Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines, Iowa Indiana 99, Chattanooga 74 Kentucky 85, Stony Brook 57 Friday, March 18 At Barclays Center Brooklyn, N.Y. Stephen F. Austin 70, West Virginia 56 Notre Dame 70, Michigan 63 At Scottrade Center St. Louis Wisconsin 47, Pittsburgh 43 Xavier 71, Weber State 53 Round of 32 Saturday, March 19 At PNC Arena Raleigh, N.C. North Carolina 85, Providence 66 At Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines, Iowa Indiana 73, Kentucky 67 Sunday, March 20 At Barclays Center Brooklyn, N.Y. Notre Dame 76, Stephen F. Austin 75 At Scottrade Center St. Louis Wisconsin 66, Xavier 63 At Wells Fargo Center Philadelphia Regional Semifinals Friday, March 25 Wisconsin (22-12) vs. Notre Dame (23-11), 7:27 p.m.

North Carolina (30-6) vs. Indiana (27-7), 9:40 p.m.

Regional Championship Sunday, March 27 Semifinal winners SOUTH REGIONAL Round of 64 Thursday, March 17 At Dunkin’ Donuts Center Providence, R.I. Miami 79, Buffalo 72 Wichita State 65, Arizona 55 At Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines, Iowa UConn 74, Colorado 67 Kansas 105, Austin Peay 79 Friday, March 18 At Barclays Center Brooklyn, N.Y. Villanova 86, UNC Asheville 56 Iowa 72, Temple 70, OT At Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Spokane, Wash.

Hawaii 77, California 66 Maryland 79, South Dakota State 74 Round of 32 Saturday, March 19 At Dunkin’ Donuts Center Providence, R.I. Miami 65, Wichita State 57 At Wells Fargo Arena Des Moines, Iowa Kansas 73, UConn 61 Sunday, March 20 At Barclays Center Brooklyn, N.Y. Villanova 87, Iowa 68 At Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Spokane, Wash.

Maryland 73, Hawaii 60 At KFC YUM! Center Louisville, Ky. Regional Semifinals Thursday, March 24 Villanova (31-5) vs. Miami (27-7), 7:10 p.m.

Kansas (32-4) vs. Maryland (27-8), 9:40 p.m.

Regional Championship Saturday, March 26 Semifinal winners MIDWEST REGIONAL Round of 64 Thursday, March 17 At PNC Arena Raleigh, N.C. Butler 71, Texas Tech 61 Virginia 81, Hampton 45 At Pepsi Center Denver Iowa State 94, Iona 81 UALR 85, Purdue 83, 2OT Utah 80, Fresno State 69 Gonzaga 68, Seton Hall 52 Friday, March 18 At Scottrade Center St. Louis Syracuse 70, Dayton 51 Middle Tenn. 90, Michigan State 81 Round of 32 Saturday, March 19 At PNC Arena Raleigh, N.C. Virginia 77, Butler 69 At Pepsi Center Denver Iowa State 78, UALR 61 Gonzaga 82, Utah 59

Sunday, March 20 At Scottrade Center St. Louis Syracuse 75, Middle Tennessee 50 At The United Center Chicago Regional Semifinals Friday, March 25 Virginia (28-7) vs. Iowa State (2311), 7:10 p.m.

Syracuse (21-13) vs. Gonzaga (287), 9:40 p.m.

Regional Championship Sunday, March 27 Semifinal winners WEST REGIONAL Round of 64 Thursday, March 17 At Dunkin’ Donuts Center Providence, R.I. Duke 93, UNC Wilmington 85 Yale 79, Baylor 75 Friday, March 18 At Chesapeake Energy Arena Oklahoma City VCU 75, Oregon State 67 Oklahoma 82, Cal St. Bakersfield 68 Texas A&M 92, Green Bay 65 Northern Iowa 75, Texas 72 At Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Spokane, Wash.

Oregon 91, Holy Cross 52 Saint Joseph’s 78, Cincinnati 76 Round of 32 Saturday, March 19 At Dunkin’ Donuts Center Providence, R.I. Duke 71, Yale 64 Sunday, March 20 At Chesapeake Energy Arena Oklahoma City Oklahoma 85, VCU 81 Texas A&M 92, Northern Iowa 88, 2OT At Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena Spokane, Wash.

Oregon 69, Saint Joseph’s 64 At The Honda Center Anaheim, Calif.

Regional Semifinals Thursday, March 24 Oklahoma (27-7) vs. Texas A&M (288), 7:37 p.m.

Oregon (30-6) vs. Duke (25-10), 9:40 p.m.

Regional Championship Saturday, March 26 Semifinal winners FINAL FOUR At NRG Stadium Houston National Semifinals Saturday, April 2 South champion vs. West champion East champion vs. Midwest champion National Championship Monday, April 4 Semifinal winners

NIT

First Round Tuesday, March 15 South Carolina 88, High Point 66 Florida State 84, Davidson 74 Ohio State 72, Akron 63, OT Creighton 72, Alabama 54 Washington 107, Long Beach State 102 Florida 97, North Florida 68 Valparaiso 84, Texas Southern 73 San Diego State 79, IPFW 55 Saint Mary’s (Cal) 58, New Mexico State 56 Wednesday, March 16 Wagner 79, St. Bonaventure 75 Georgia 93, Belmont 84 Monmouth 90, Bucknell 80 George Washington 82, Hofstra 80 Virginia Tech 86, Princeton 81, OT Georgia Tech 81, Houston 62 BYU 97, UAB 79 Second Round Thursday, March 17 Valparaiso 81, Florida State 69 Friday, March 18 BYU 80, Virginia Tech 77 Saturday, March 19 Creighton 87, Wagner 54 Sunday, March 20 Florida 74, Ohio State 66 Saint Mary’s (Cal) 77, Georgia 65 Monday, March 21 George Washington 87, Monmouth 71 Georgia Tech (20-14) at South Carolina (25-8), 9 p.m.

Washington (19-14) at San Diego State (26-9), 11:30 p.m.

Quarterfinals Tuesday, March 22 Saint Mary’s (Cal) (29-5), at Valparaiso (28-6), 7 p.m.

Creighton (20-14) at BYU (25-10), 9 p.m.

Wednesday, March 23 South Carolina-Georgia Tech winner vs. Washington-San Diego State winner, 7 or 9 p.m.

George Washington (25-10) vs.

Ohio State-Florida (21-14), 7 or 9 p.m.

Semifinals At Madison Square Garden New York Tuesday, March 29 Game 1, 7 p.m.

Game 2, 9:30 p.m.

Championship Thursday, March 31 Semifinal winners, 7 p.m.

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Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Hornets catch Spurs, end 6-game win streak The Associated Press CHARLOTTE — Jeremy Lin scored 15 of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, and the Charlotte Hornets overcame a 23-point, first-half deficit to snap the San Antonio Spurs’ six-game winning streak with a 91-88 victory Monday night.

Lin was 11 of 18 from the field and hit all four 3-point attempts for the Hornets, including three in the fourth quarter.

Courtney Lee had 17 points, Nicolas Batum added 15, and Cody Zeller grabbed 14 rebounds for the Hornets, who bounced back from a disappointing loss to Denver on Saturday.

Tony Parker had 19 points for the Spurs, while LaMarcus Aldridge added 18 points and 12 rebounds. Tim Duncan had 16 points and 10 re-

comeback

From Page B1

Paul Jesperson’s buzzerbeating halfcourt winner against Texas two nights earlier.

However, this time around it was Texas A&M putting together the last-second heroics on its way to reaching the Sweet 16 for the third time in school history — the first since 2007.

More precisely, it was a last 44 seconds in which the Aggies were able to atone for what had been a dismal previous 39 minutes and 16 seconds.

Down 69-57 after Jeremy Morgan hit two free throws with 44 seconds remaining in regulation, Texas A&M proceeded to outscore the 11th-seeded Panthers 14-2 from there — capped by Admon Gilder’s steal and layup with 1.9 seconds remaining that tied the game at 71-71 and sent it to the first overtime.

That 44 seconds included four turnovers by Northern Iowa, which was without its main inbounds passer Matt Bohannon because of a left

bounds.

The Spurs had two chances to tie it at the end of regulation, but Patty Mills and Danny Green both missed 3-point attempts.

CAVALIERS 124

NIT George Washington 87 Monmouth 71

CLEVELAND — LeBron James scored 33 points and recorded his 41st career triple-double as the Cleveland Cavaliers clinched their second straight Central Division title with a 124-91 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.

James added 11 rebounds and 11 assists before checking out with 6:02 left to a thunderous ovation.

He scored 17 in the first quarter, helping the Cavs build a 19-point lead and erase the memory of an embarrassing loss on Saturday in Miami.

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Tyler Cavanaugh had 22 points and 12 rebounds, Patricio Garino scored 19 on 8-of-12 shooting and George Washington beat Monmouth 87-71 on Monday to advance to its first NIT quarterfinal.

Fourth-seeded George Washington (25-10) will host No. 2 seed Florida (21-14) on Wednesday.

Monmouth got within 39-38 early in the second half but Garino’s fast-break layup capped George Washington’s 10-0 run for a 49-38 lead. GW’s lead was cut to five with eight minutes left, but an 8-0 run, with 3-pointers by Garino and Cavanaugh, pushed its advantage to double digits.

knee injury, and a resurgence by House — who missed his first nine shots of the game and was scoreless until 5:14 remaining in regulation.

“We knew it was kind of impossible, man, but we just said that we were going to fight until the end,” House said.

Once into overtime, it was Caruso who sent the game to a second with a drive and layup with 5.9 seconds left in the first extra period, tying the game at 83-83.

And in the second, the surging Aggies finally wore down a hobbled and shorthanded Northern Iowa team missing two of its starters after fouling out. It was House who capped the scoring with a free throw with 12.6 seconds remaining to give Texas A&M a 92-88 lead, with a most unexpected and euphoric celebration following moments later on the Chesapeake Arena court.

The Aggies have now won 10 of their last 11 games entering next week’s Sweet 16, but few — if any — will top Sunday night.

“I’ve never been a part of a game like that, never saw

one,” Aggies coach Billy Kennedy said. “(I) still really don’t know what happened.”

For Northern Iowa, the dramatic turn of fortunes in the final minute was a difficult blow to handle after Friday night’s last-second miracle against the Longhorns.

Morgan had career highs of 36 points and 12 rebounds, while Klint Carlson matched his career high with 17 points, but all of the positives of the first 39 minutes of the game were lost amid the postgame tears.

“It’s just tough,” Bohannon said. “It’s the NCAA Tournament, though, that’s what happens.”

The Panthers, seeking their second Sweet 16 appearance in school history, led by as many as 15 points in the second half. However, they were unable to overtime the series of last-minute miscues that left them on the opposite end of emotion compared to their opening-round win.

“It shouldn’t have ended tonight,” said Northern Iowa coach Ben Jacobson, who added the loss was “no question” the toughest to handle of his career.

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B3

BASKETBALL Roundup

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sports

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The SUMTER ITEM

college baseball roundup

area roundup

USC, Clemson climb in rankings with sweeps

Wilson Hall wins in a rout

The South Carolina and Clemson baseball teams both moved up seven spots in the Collegiate Baseball poll and entered the Baseball America poll after sweeping 3-game series over the weekend.

The Tigers moved up to 12th in the Collegiate Baseball poll while USC came right in behind them at No. 13. Clemson is 17th in the BA poll with the Gamecocks one spot back.

The Tigers completed a 3-game sweep of Boston College with a 3-2, 10-inning victory on Sunday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium. Seth Beer hit a 2-out, walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th.

The Tigers rallied from a 2-0 deficit on the strength of an Eli White solo homer in the seventh and Chris Williams’ RBI single in the ninth.

Clemson improved to 16-3 oveall and 5-1 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. BC fell to 12-6 and 2-4.

USC rallied as well at Founders

Park on Sunday. Trailing by five runs entering the bottom of the fifth, South Carolina scored seven unanswered runs capped by a 3-run homer by John Jones in the eighth to defeat Arkansas 8-6.

The Gamecocks are 20-2 and 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference. Arkansas dropped to 15-6 and 0-3.

Citadel 7 Presbyterian 2

CHARLESTON – Jacob Watcher pitched a career high 5 1/3 innings to lift The Citadel to a 7-2 victory over Presbyterian on Sunday at Riley Park.

Watcher, the right-hander from Sumter, improved to 3-1. He scattered four hits and allowed just one run while walking one and striking out four.

Twin brother Philip Watcher had a hit and an RBI for the 9-11 Bulldogs. William Kinney, another Sumterite, scored a run.

Wilson Hall’s varsity baseball team improved to 2-1 in SCISA Region II-3A with a 17-1 victory over Orangeburg Prep in five innings on Monday at Baron Field.

Drew Talley picked up the victory for WH, which improved to 5-2 on the season.

Sam Watford led the offense, going 3-for-4 with a home run. McLendon Sears had two hits, including a triple, and Robert James and Edward McMillan also had two hits.

VARSITY SOCCER Lakewood, Lake City share title

Lakewood High School and Lake City were declared co-champions of Gator Classic XX on Saturday at J. Frank Baker Stadium.

The teams played to a 2-2 tie and the match was counted as a draw due to tournament rules. However, a penalty kicks shootout was held with Lake City winning 4-3.

Ben Busques and Phillip Cadena scored goals for the Gators, while Christian McDonald had an assist.

Lakewood defeated Calhoun Academy 11-0 in its opening game. McDonald scored four goals, while Jack Turcios had two goals and two assists.

Blake Carraher had one goal and two assists, Luis Montoya had one goal and one assist and Charles Olden, Tanner Newman and Busques each had a goal.

Kenny Jones was named Lakewood’s most valuable player.

Wilson Hall 1 Trinity-Byrnes 0

DARLINGTON – Dalton Miller scored in the final three minutes of the match to lead Wilson Hall to a 1-0 victory over Trinity-Byrnes on Monday at the T-B field. Andrew McCaffrey assisted on the goal for the 4-4 Barons.

VARSITY GOLF Hartsville 143 Manning 169 MANNING – Manning High School opened its Region VI-3A schedule with a 26-stroke loss to Hartsville on Monday at Wyboo Golf Club.

Hartsville shot 143 while the Monarchs shots 169. Jacob Richburg led Manning with a 37. Hunter White shot 41, McArthur Bennett 42 and Anders Land 49.

women’s NCAA TOURNAMENT

Washington surprises Maryland for Sweet 16 invite The Associated Press

just three points at halftime before pulling away for a 72-55 COLLEGE PARK, Md. — win over Middle Tennessee Kelsey Plum scored 32 points, State in Saturday’s first round.

Texas A&M 56 Notre Dame 87 and Washington shocked secCOLLEGE STATION, Texas Indiana 70 ond-seeded Maryland 74-65 SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Lind— Adut Bulgak scored 18, LetiMonday night to reach the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tourna- cia Romero added 17 and Flori- say Allen scored a season-high 22 points, Brianna Turner da State built a big lead early ment for the first time in 15 added 18 points and 10 reand held on for a 74-56 win years. bounds and top-seed Notre over Texas A&M on Monday Maryland (31-4) came in Dame finally broke away from night in the second round of with a rich history of success ninth-seed Indiana with a 15-2 the NCAA Tournament. in the postseason and a 10run that started late in the The victory puts the Semigame winning streak. The twonoles in the round of 16 for the third quarter to beat the Hootime Big Ten champions were siers 87-70 on Monday night in second straight season and also playing at home.. the second round of the NCAA None of that mattered to the fourth time overall where Tournament. they’ll meet Baylor on Saturseventh-seeded Huskies (24The Hoosiers (21-12) used a 10), who squeezed past Penn in day in the Dallas Regional.

12-1 run, led by three baskets Florida State (25-7) led by the opening round for their first NCAA Tournament victory since 2006.

Florida State 74

Sioux Falls Regional

Richard Shiro/The Associated Press

South Carolina’s Sarah Imovbioh (24) works against Kansas State’s Kayla Goth during Sunday’s NCAA Tournament game in Columbia.

Women

From Page B1

moments ahead. The Gamecocks play No. 4 seed Syracuse (27-7) on Friday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota as they look for a second straight Final Four.

“From here on out, everybody’s just going to give us 110 percent,” South Carolina forward Alaina Coates said of opponents. “We’re just going to have to come back harder than that.”

The Gamecocks (33-1) romped through their first two NCAA Tournament games, defeating Jacksonville by 36 points before routing the Wildcats.

Breanna Lewis had 21 points to lead the Wildcats, who had no answer once South Carolina got going.

Wildcats coach Jeff Mittie said his team not as disciplined early on as he wanted.

“But when we made some mistakes, South Carolina jumped right on it,” he said.

Coates had 14 points and 10 rebounds, her second straight double-double in the NCAA Tournament and 19th of the season.

The Gamecocks led by 19 points at the break and eventually grew the lead to 32 points against their Big 12 Conference opponents.

Kansas State had hoped to make the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2002 and thought its 6-foot-5 junior Lewis could limit the effectiveness of South Carolina’s inside power duo of 6-5 Wilson and 6-4 Coates.

But the Wildcats couldn’t match up with Mitchell and point guard Khadijah Sessions, who combined for six of South Carolina’s nine steals.

Mitchell has finally played like herself the past few games, winning SEC Tournament MVP honors earlier this month. When she’s playing well, the Gamecocks usually play at their peak, too.

“This is the time you want to play your best basketball,” she said.

TIP INS Kansas State: Lewis had six blocks against George Washington on Friday night, setting the school record for most games in a career with five-ormore blocks at 14. Lewis has 177 blocks the past two seasons, also a Kansas State record. She finished with two blocks against the Gamecocks.

South Carolina: The Gamecocks have turned up their stingy defense even more in the past month. They’ve held their past nine opponents to an average of 49 points a game. One team has broken the 60-point barrier in that

SIOUX FALLS REGIONAL First Round Kansas State 56, George Washington 51 South Carolina 77, Jacksonville 41 Albany (NY) 61, Florida 59 Syracuse 73, Army 56 West Virginia 74, Princeton 65 Ohio State 88, Buffalo 69 Tennessee 59, Green Bay 53 Arizona State 74, New Mexico State 52 Second Round Sunday, March 20 South Carolina 73, Kansas State 47 Syracuse 76, Albany (NY) 59 Ohio State 88, West Virginia 81 Tennessee 75, Arizona State 64 Regional Semifinals Friday, March 25 At Sioux Falls, S.D. South Carolina (33-1) vs. Syracuse (27-7), TBA Ohio State (26-7) vs. Tennessee (21-13), TBA Regional Championship Sunday, March 27 Semifinal winners, TBA

stretch — and that was Kentucky in a 93-63 loss in the SEC tournament semifinals earlier this month.

HOME COURT EDGE South Carolina used its strong home crowd to again come out on top at Colonial Life Arena. The Gamecocks have gone 47-1 the past three seasons on their home court, the lone loss a 66-54 defeat last month to NCAA Tournament favorite UConn. It was the team’s fourth straight home NCAA home win after sweeping last year’s two opening round games.

K-STATE FUTURE Wildcats coach Jeff Mittie was disappointed with his team’s showing against South Carolina. He was proud, however, of how his team took positive steps forward this season.

Kansas State won its first NCAA Tournament game since 2012, qualifying after starting Big 12 Conference play 0-4. “This was a year that was critical to gain some traction and we did that,” he said.

UP NEXT Kansas State’s season is over.

South Carolina will play No. 4 Syracuse in the Sweet 16 on Friday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

by Alexis Gassion and a pair

by Amanda Cahill, to cut the score to 56-54 on a basket by Lindsay Leikem with 2:47 left in the third quarter.

Kentucky 79 Oklahoma 58 LEXINGTON, Ky. — Janee Thompson scored 16 points, including nine straight over the

third and fourth quarters, to help No. 3 seed Kentucky beat sixth-seeded Oklahoma 79-58 for a second-round victory on Monday night.

The Wildcats (25-7) earned their fifth Sweet 16 berth in seven seasons and will play a few blocks away from campus at Rupp Arena.

Keeping Sumter Beautiful

By Breann Liebermann, Clemson Extension - Water Resources Agent Green Machine

• Next time you’re out shopping, pick up low-phosphorus, biodegradable soaps. These soaps are safer for I always find it more pleasant to our waterways. work outside, especially in this gor• If you want to treat you self, take geous spring weather. Yesterday I your car to a commercial car wash. decided to do some research on my These facilities are required to treat laptop out in my backyard. After about an hour, I had to abort the mis- the water they use to wash cars. Just sion. My computer screen was so cov- be aware, many hand car wash stations do not treat the runoff water. ered in pollen I could barely see How to know? Check to see where through it! the runoff from the facility is going. If it’s running down the street, chances Whether we like it or not, pollen season is now in full force. While my are that water will never get treated and will pollute our local water computer screen was fairly easy to resources. clean off with one swipe of a rag, other things are not as easy to keep For bonus points, check your vehipristine, like our cars and trucks. It’s understandable that we want to wash cle for leaks such as antifreeze, oil, our cars more frequently in the spring and other chemicals. These chemifor both aesthetic and safety reasons. cals eventually wash off road surfaces and pollute our water. For those of us However, washing your car on your that aren’t as car savvy, here’s a great driveway can actually contribute to water pollution. The runoff contains tip for checking for leaks: place newspaper underneath your car when it’s soap, dirt, and oil, which will enter our local waterways, untreated, after parked overnight (secure with rocks it runs off your driveway (watch the or another object so it doesn’t blow flow path next time you or a neighbor away). The next morning, check to washes their car!). see if anything has leaked onto the paper. Getting those leaks taken care The good news is, there are very of is important not only for the health simple actions we can take to miniof your car, but also for the health of mize the impact car washing has on our local waterways. Try one of these our environment. out next time your vehicle needs a Clemson University Cooperative Extension spruce up: Service offers its programs to people of all • Wash your car on your lawn. regardless of race, color, sex, religion, Runoff will soak into the ground and ages, national origin, disability, political beliefs, pollutants are treated naturally. This sexual orientation, marital or family status is the easiest option. and is an equal opportunity employer.

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OBITUARIES

THE SUMTER ITEM

ROGER WHEAT Funeral services for Roger Wheat will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday at St. Matthew Baptist Church, 2101 Walker St., Picayune, MS 39466. The Rev. Dr. Michael Kelley will bring the eulogy. Burial will be in Whitehead Family Cemetery, CarriWHEAT ere, Mississippi.

Roger “Skydiver” Wheat was born on Nov. 28, 1951, in Picayune, a son of the late John and Dorothy Smith Wheat. He departed this earthly life on Friday, March 18, 2016, at his residence in Sumter.

Mr. Wheat received his education in the public schools of Picayune, where he excelled on the football team during his high school years. After graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, where he was trained as an aircraft mechanic. He was honorably discharged after serving seven years. He then attended Sumter Area Technical College, where he received an associate’s degree in machine shop and general technology. He operated the Skydiver’s Club House in Sumter for many years. He later started his own business — Wheat Construction. He was a proud member and served as treasurer of the Atlantic Avenue Checker Club. He was a selfprofessed evangelist and was always willing to bring the word to anyone he met.

Mr. Wheat leaves to cherish his precious memories: his devoted wife, Linda HannibalWheat; one son, Derrick McLeod; six daughters, Dr. Lacreasia Wheat-Hitchings (Andrew) of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, Monique Wheat of Atlanta, Latrelle Grant of Sumter, Tonya McLeod and Nicole McLeod, both of Sumter, and Dorothy Wheat of Dallas; nine grandchildren, Vincent Jr., Joshua, Tatianna, James (JJ), Santese, Naaisa, Terrelle, Marcus and Calista; his loving niece who was raised as his sister, Samara Wheat of Picayune; and a host of other nephews, nieces, relatives and friends.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by a brother, James Wheat; and his two sisters, Jacqueline Smith Magee and Joanna Smith Taylor.

Baylous’ Funeral Home, 300 N. Blanks Ave., Picayune, MS 39466 is in charge of the funeral services.

Courtesy announcement of Job’s Mortuary Inc., 312 S. Main St., Sumter.

MARY M. BRIGHT COLUMBIA — Mary Mellette Bright, 95, widow of Col. Charles William Bright, passed away on March 20, 2016.

Mary was the youngest daughter of the late Marion and Ethel Thompson Mellette of WedgeBRIGHT field, Sumter County. Mary always said she had a wonderful childhood growing up in the country with her three sisters and two brothers.

Mary attended Wedgefield Elementary School and finished the seventh grade with an average grade of 98.6. She then went to Sumter Girl’s High School. After graduating, she went to Montreat Junior College, where she excelled academically and excelled in athletics. She was elected president of the Athletic Association. She was a member of the Student Government Board, a member of the Hiking Club and the “M” Club. After finishing Montreat, she transferred to Winthrop College, graduating with a bachelor of science degree. She was a member of Phi Upsilon Omicron, National Home Economics Fraternity (an honor society for the school of Consumer Sciences and Allied Profession).

After graduating from college, she taught in South Carolina schools for three years.

She left teaching and worked at Personnel Center, Headquarters at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Her fiancé, Bill, was stationed at Bragg at the time.

She and Bill began their married life at Bragg after Bill returned from Europe at the end of the war. Mary always

said she loved military life.

She and Bill lived in various places in the states including Washington, D.C., twice during their life, plus the Orient, Europe and, best of all, Alaska, where Bill was commander of Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Mary and Bill always enjoyed playing golf. They found playing golf in Alaska quite a challenge with sand greens only; however, once you learned to putt on sand, it almost always took only one putt to sink the ball. After Bill retired, they played golf almost every day. Wherever they were stationed, Mary enjoyed her flowers. She always left their quarters more beautiful than when she arrived there. Mary had many special hobbies — she studied art, oil painting at Alaska University under Dr. Van Fline, head of the art department, and also studied with Claire Febrese, noted artist and author. She entered her paintings in several shows while in Alaska.

Many of her paintings hang in her home and the daughters’ homes. Mary enjoyed cooking and entertaining. She especially enjoyed her Garden Club and Bridge Club after retiring from the Army. When at home and alone, she loved playing her organ and working with her flowers. She was often saying, “I’ve had a good life.”

Mary is survived by two daughters, Brandon Foster (Robert Foster, attorney) of Lexington and Patti Neeley (Dr. Gary Neeley) of Forest, Virginia; son, Robert Bright of Raleigh, North Carolina; four grandchildren, Michael Bright, Christian Neeley, Danny Neeley and Mary Boyce; three great-grandchildren, Michael Jr., Matthew and Abigail Bright; and sister, Leila Seabold of Melbourne, Florida.

In addition to her parents, she was predeceased by her brothers, Marion Mellette and Robert E. Mellette; and sisters, Ethel O’Dell of Laurens and Norine Smoak of Fripp Island.

Bill and Mary were members of North Trenholm Baptist Church.

The family is very grateful for the loving care given to Mary by her caregivers, Dorothy Sumter and Louise Green, during her declining years.

They made growing old not so bad by their loving care.

A graveside service will be held at 2 p.m. on Friday at Fort Jackson National Cemetery.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 7 p.m. on Thursday at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel.

Please sign the online guestbook at www.dunbarfunerals. com.

JACOB BOATWRIGHT MANNING — Jacob Boatwright, 65, died on Sunday, March 20, 2016, at Palmetto Health Tuomey.

He was born on Jan. 18, 1951, in Manning, a son of the late Rev. Acie and Ruth Martin Boatwright.

The family is receiving friends at the home of his daughter and son-in-law, Tonya and Riyad “Ray” White, 3250 Valencia Drive, Dalzell.

These services have been entrusted to Samuels Funeral Home LLC of Manning.

JAMES F. GORE JR. James Franklin “Frank” Gore Jr., 77, husband of Tempsey Ann Berry Gore, died on Saturday, March 19, 2016, at Palmetto Health Tuomey.

Born on Aug. 27, 1938, in Marion County, he was a son of the late James Franklin Sr. and Sara Elizabeth Edmund Gore. Frank was first and foremost a devoted and loving husband, father, and grandfather. He was married to the love of his life for 53 years. He was blessed with a beautiful singing voice and shared his love of music with many.

Frank was a 1960 graduate of Wofford College, where he was a member of Kappa Sigma Fraternity and the Wofford Glee Club. Frank served in the Army National Guard. He worked in car sales and management for more than 50 years and was a member of the Chevrolet Society of Sales Executives Hall of Fame. When not at work, Frank devoted many hours to

his work as choir director and elder of Tirzah Presbyterian Church, where he served for 27 years. Bowling and gardening were two activities that brought him joy, but his family and grandchildren truly held his heart.

Survivors include his wife of 53 years; a daughter, Cindy Martin (Jody) of Florence; a son, James F. “Jamie” Gore III (Heather) of Sumter; grandchildren, Adam and Brett Martin and Libby and Lucy Gore; sisters, Elizabeth Ann Bazemore (John) of Georgetown and Mary Louise Johnson of Mullins; and several nieces and nephews and their families.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. today at Macedonia United Methodist Church, 402 N. Main St., Mullins, with the Rev. Kem Thomas and the Rev. Achim Daffin officiating. Burial will be in Cedardale Cemetery in Mullins.

Pallbearers will be Jay Bazemore, Bob Bazemore, Rodney Cameron, Adam Martin, Brett Martin and Will White.

Honorary pallbearers will be Bill Hicks, Benny Hicks, Worth Johnson and Charles Clark.

The family will receive friends at the home.

Elmore-Cannon-Stephens Funeral Home and Crematorium of Sumter is in charge of the arrangements.

MALACHI CANTY Malachi “Buster” Canty, husband of Julia Elizabeth Lang Canty, entered eternal rest on Sunday, March 20, 2016, at Sumter Valley Health and Rehab.

Born on Jan. 8, 1928, in Clarendon County, he was a son of Johnny and Beulah Rebecca McConico Canty.

The family is receiving relatives and friends at the home of Barbara Dubose, 8002 Milford Plantation, Pinewood.

Funeral plans will be announced by Community Funeral Home of Sumter.

MATTIE LOU NELSONHOLMES Mattie Lou Melson-Holmes, 75, wife of Elder Lee Holmes Sr., departed this life on Monday, March 21, 2016, at Palmetto Health Tuomey.

She was born on Feb. 27, 1941, in Manchester, Georgia, a daughter of the late Charlie and Charlie Mae Ellison Melson.

The family will be receiving friends from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday only at Faith Tabernacle Church, 194 S. Pike East.

Funeral plans are incomplete and will be announced later by Job’s Mortuary Inc. of Sumter.

BETTY J. MERCHANT Betty J. Merchant, 82, departed this earthly life on Saturday, March 19, 2016, at Angelic Place in Sumter.

Born on Sept. 3, 1933, in Sumter County, she was a daughter of the late Bernice Rhames.

The family will receive friends at the home of her sister, Ruby Chambers, 1077 Reverend J.W. Carter Road, Manning.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete at this time and will be announced by Summerton Funeral Home LLC.

JOSEPH C. JENKINS Joseph Charles “Bubba” Jenkins, 60, husband of Gladys Pitts-Jenkins, died on Friday, March 18, 2016, at MJHS

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016 Hospice Care Center, Brooklyn, New York.

Born on March 3, 1956, in Woodrow, Lee County, he was a son of Isaac Johnson and Camilla Jenkins Martin.

The family is receiving relatives and friends at the home of Camilla Jenkins Martin, 790 Westbury Mill Road.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete and will be announced by Williams Funeral Home Inc.

DR. SAMUEL S. HAYWOOD Dr. Samuel Scull Haywood, 85, died peacefully on Sunday, March 13, 2016, at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with his daughter Samantha by his side.

Dr. Sam was born on Nov. 11, 1930, in Daytona Beach, Florida, and attended Palmer College of Chiropractic. In 1966, he drove through South Carolina, fell in love with Sumter, and decided it was the place he wanted to start his business and raise a family. Sumter became his home for almost 50 years. Dr. Sam was a good neighbor and always willing to help a friend in need. Long after he retired and closed his practice, he never refused to offer his chiropractic services or advice to anyone in pain — free of charge! He loved to share stories about his time as a lifeguard on Daytona Beach, his days of wrestling alligators, and his adventures in the service as a U.S. Navy Seabee.

Sam Haywood adored his “beautiful wife” of 57 years, Miss Nita. He worried about her constantly. Nita’s progression into Alzheimer’s broke his heart as he tried his best to care for her until the end.

He served the community as a member of the Optimist Club, the Jaycees, Christian Business Men’s Committee, and was a longtime contributor to the Huddle House, where Dr. Sam could be found sharing breakfast and swapping stories with many of Sumter’s other local icons.

He is survived by his wife, Juanita “Nita” Maule Haywood; his daughter, Samantha and her husband, Matt Larkin; and three grandchildren, Halli Haywood, Jack Thomas and Caroline Grace Larkin.

The U.S. Navy Honor Guard will participate in the graveside service held at 11 a.m. on Thursday at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania.

Memorials can be made to Clear Thoughts Foundation in his memory at www. clearthoughtsfoundation.org or to the Alzheimer’s Association at www.alz.org/donate

MELLISSA B. JELLERSON Mellissa Bryant Jellerson, 44, entered into eternal rest on Sunday, March 20, 2016.

Born on Oct. 8, 1971, in Sumter, she was a daughter of Sydney Bryant and Nancy Griffin Polanco. Mellissa graduated from Furman High School and was employed with Becton-Dickinson, until becoming disabled.

Surviving are her mother and stepfather, Vincent Polanco of Sumter; her father and Karen of Lexington; a daughter, Cierra “Nikki” Keels (Jake) of Alcolu; a sister, Hope Avins (Tim) of Jackson; a granddaughter, Tatum Grace Keels; numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins; a nephew, Michael Morris; and her former husband, Michael Jellerson.

Funeral services will be

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held at 11 a.m. on Thursday at Green Acres Assembly of God Church with the Rev. Michael Bowman officiating. Burial will be in Green Acres Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Joseph Keels, Wayne Allsbrooks, Travis Steele, D.J. Griffin, Dakota Jordan and Christopher Avins.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. on Wednesday at Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home and other times at the home.

Memorials may be made to Green Acres Assembly of God Church, 537 Lewis Road, Sumter, SC 29154.

Online condolences may be sent to www.sumterfunerals. com Elmore Hill McCreight Funeral Home & Crematory, 221 Broad St., Sumter, is in charge of the arrangements, (803) 775-9386.

GEORGIA MAE B. JOSEY Georgia Mae Black Josey, 91, departed this life on Friday, March 18, 2016, at Palmetto Health Richland, Columbia, surrounded by her family.

Born on Dec. 4, 1924, in Sumter County, she was a daughter of the late Albert Black and Carrie Sigler Black Green. She was married to the late Manning Josey Sr. and from this union came eight children. She worked as a childcare worker at Trinity Baptist Church. She was a former member of Trinity Baptist Church, where she served on the missionary board, gospel choir and senior choir.

Later she became a charter member of New Fellowship Baptist Church, where she continued her work with the church until her health declined.

She leaves to cherish her memory: five sons, David Josey (Phyllis) of New Jersey, W. Leroy Josey, M.D. (Carmen) of Ohio, Leon Josey (Nancy) of Massachusetts, Ted E. Josey and Darrell J. Josey (Belinda), both of Sumter; two daughters, Marie Josey of New Jersey and Cynthia Josey of Sumter; 18 grandchildren; 12 greatgrandchildren; daughter-inlaw, the Rev. Roberta C. Josey; one aunt, Jessie Mae Sigler; a host of nieces, nephews, other relatives and friends.

Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. on Wednesday at New Fellowship Baptist Church, 105 S. Purdy St., Sumter, with the Rev. Dale Edwards, pastor, eulogist.

The family is receiving relatives and friends at the home of her daughter, Cynthia Josey, 862 Twin Lakes Drive, Sumter.

The remains will be placed in the church at 10 a.m.

The funeral procession will leave at 10:20 a.m. from the home.

Floral bearers and pallbearers will be family and friends.

Burial will be in Walker Cemetery.

These services have been entrusted to the management and staff of Williams Funeral Home Inc., 821 N. Main St., Sumter.

Online memorial messages may be sent to the family at williamsfuneralhome@sc.rr. com.

Visit us on the web at www. williamsfuneralhomeinc.com.

Our Angels have earned their wings Visi ng Angels only hires experienced caregivers. Our independently operated homecare agencies are trained to run the most comprehensive background screenings in the industry on every caregiver, including State, County and Federal searches. For this reason “Peace of Mind” has become synonymous with the Visi ng Angels name.

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803-418-5441 www.visi ngangels.com

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COMICS

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

THE SUMTER ITEM

BIZARRO

SOUP TO NUTZ

ANDY CAPP

GARFIELD

BEETLE BAILEY

BORN LOSER

BLONDIE

ZITS

MOTHER GOOSE

DOG EAT DOUG

DILBERT

JEFF MACNELLY'S SHOE

Parents of teenage cutters must listen, not judge

Dear Abby ABIGAIL VAN BUREN

DEAR READERS — I promised “Heartbroken Mom From Anywhere” (Oct. 5) to print letters from readers offering suggestions about helping her teen daughter, who is a cutter:

DEAR ABBY — I am a 33-year-old woman who has cut for many years, starting early in high school. What concerns me is the mom doesn’t completely understand what’s going on.

Not many people do.

Self-harm is a cry for help from someone who doesn’t know how to voice his or her

emotions. I, too, was bullied and didn’t know how to express the pain I was feeling, so I took it out on my body. Over the years it became my coping mechanism, although an unhealthy one.

Helping someone who is selfharming requires understanding AND A LICENSED PROFESSIONAL to identify the emotions and suggest better ways to express them. One that worked for me was doing puzzles. It was a way to keep my mind and hands busy.

This teen also needs to know she is not alone. Parents need to listen. I cannot stress how important it is for cutters to know someone is there for them with love and no judgment.

Knows from experience in Missouri

DEAR ABBY — I grew up in a dysfunctional household with abusive parents. When I would cut, it was like I could feel all my pent-up emotions leaking out through the wounds on my legs. The physical pain was bearable and distracted me from everything that was going on in my life, and I would feel a little bit better about myself and a little less desperate.

Cutting is a powerful addiction. Even now, more than 10 years later, when things get bad I feel a compulsion to just make one small cut. What helped me to stop cutting wasn’t counseling or medication. It was becoming passionate about active hobbies that allowed me to release my bottled-up feelings and stress and feel good at the same time.

Former cutter in Minnesota

JUMBLE

SUDOKU

THAT SCRAMBLED WORD GAME

By David L Hoyt and Jeff Knurek

HOW TO PLAY: Each row, column and set of 3-by-3 boxes must contain the numbers 1 through 9 without repetition.

THE DAILY CROSSWORD PUZZLE

By Ed Sessa

ACROSS 1 Wife of 25-Down 5 Flipping burgers, e.g.

10 Victorious shout 14 Sylvester's speech problem 15 Now, in Nuevo León 16 Nixed, at NASA 17 Corrosive stuff 18 Be homesick (for) 19 Country legend Tennessee Ernie __ 20 Gradually exhaust 22 Helpful staffers 23 Amiss 24 Nag 26 Embarrassing slip-ups 29 Bottom-line red ink 32 "That's all she __" 33 Bear shelter 35 Infamous vampire, familiarly 36 One's self 37 Salon task 40 Korean carmaker 41 Like Lady Godiva on horseback 43 Author __ Stanley Gardner 44 Upright 46 Darkest lunar phase

3/22/16 48 Some school uniform parts 49 Salon task 50 Part of a progression 51 Corned beef solution 53 Ogden Nash specialty, and a hint to this puzzle's circles 57 Count for something 58 Cooper of shock rock 60 Pre-euro Italian money 61 Sign of the future 62 German thanks 63 One of seven for Julia Louis-Dreyfus 64 Skin growth 65 Ice cream helping 66 "Slammin'" slugger Sammy DOWN 1 Imperfection 2 Grain in some cakes 3 Where billions live 4 Rising air current 5 City VIPs 6 Like taffy 7 Cusack or Crawford 8 Bobby of the Bruins 9 Outlaw

10 Shortstop's realm 11 Furniture maker, e.g.

12 "Puss in Boots" baddie 13 Signaled yeses 21 Geeky type 22 Singer Garfunkel 24 Derogatory 25 Husband of 1-Across 26 "Miracle on 34th Street" actor Edmund 27 Pick a fight (with) 28 Restaurant reviewer 30 Superdome NFLer 31 Tons 33 "SNL" producer Michaels 34 Piercing tool

38 13 popes 39 Teamed, as oxen 42 Highly respected 45 Baby bottle parts 47 __-man band 48 Meryl of "The Iron Lady" 50 Great, in show biz 51 It may be furrowed 52 "__ Lama Ding Dong": doo-wop hit 53 Sot 54 Wheels for the well-heeled 55 Akimbo limbs 56 "Divine Secrets of the __ Sisterhood" 58 Magazine fillers 59 Fond du __, Wisconsin

Monday’s Puzzle Solved

©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC

3/22/16

CLASSIFIEDS

TUESDAY, MARCH 22, 2016

CLASSIFIEDS BUSINESS SERVICES Home Improvements H.L. Boone, Contractor: Remodel paint roofs gutters drywall blown ceilings ect. 773-9904

Lawn Service Pack's Lawn Care High Quality -Low Prices- Free Estimates 803-305-5684 Four Seasons Lawn Care Serving Sumter for 20 yrs! Free estimates. 494-9169 or 468-4008

Legal Service Attorney Timothy L. Griffith 803-607-9087, 360 W. Wesmark.

Criminal, Family, Accident, Injury

Roofing All Types of Roofing & Repairs All work guaranteed. 30 yrs exp. SC lic.

Virgil Bickley 803-316-4734.

Robert's Metal Roofing 35 Yrs exp. 45 yr warranty. Financing avail. Expert installation. Long list of satisfied customers. 803-837-1549.

Septic Tank Cleaning

Septic Tank Cleaning Call the pros for all of your septic pumping needs. 803-316-0429 Proline Utilities, LLC

Tree Service NEWMAN'S TREE SERVICE Tree removal, trimming & stump grinding. Lic/Ins 803-316-0128 STATE TREE SERVICE Worker's Comp & General liability insurance. Top quality service, lowest prices. 803-494-5175 or 803-491-5154 www.statetree.net Ricky's Tree Service Tree removal, stump grinding, Lic & ins, free quote, 803-435-2223 or cell 803-460-8747.

Dewey Stump Removal. Special 20" stumps removed for as little as $20 per stump, 5 stump limit. Call 843-362-1743 or 704-242-0481

PETS & ANIMALS Poultry PALMETTO CORNISH CHICKENS $12/case (of 12) B-Grade Southern States 335 Broad St., Sumter 803-775-1204 While Supplies last!

803-774-1234 OR TO PLACE YOUR AD ONLINE GO TO WWW.THE ITEM.COM/PLACEMYAD Help Wanted Full-Time

Homes for Sale

Garage, Yard & Estate Sales LARGE GARAGE SALE Every Weekend Tables $2 & $3 FLEA MARKET BY SHAW AFB

Open every weekend. Call 803-494-5500

For Sale or Trade Martin's Used Appliance Washers, Dryers, Refrig., Stoves.

Guarantee 464-5439 or 469-7311.

Open 7 Days a week 9am-8pm

Help Wanted Full-Time Locally established Heating & Air condition Co. looking for Exp. Service Tech. Needs to have good driving record. Pay range from $33k-$46k a year plus health insurance, retirement, bonus and commission available. Apply in person at 1640 Suber Street, Sumter.

STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF SUMTER Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.,

Auto. Tech. Needed ASAP. Fulltime. Must have drivers license. Pay starting $25-$35 hr based on experience. Apply: B & C Automotive, 601 Broad St. Mon-Fri 8am-6pm

1387 Raccoon Rd. Mayesville area.

Price reduced! 3 br, 1.5 ba, lg bldg in side yard, 1 ac lot with pond.

C/H/A, Fin avail. No dwn pymt. $431 mo. Call 464-5960

The #1 Furniture Retail Company in the U.S. is seeking highly motivated individuals with outgoing personalities to join our Sales Team.

Candidates must have a working knowledge of computers. They will be required to build sales volume by providing superior customer service and knowledge of product and finance options. This full time position is based on a flexible work schedule that includes evenings, Saturdays and some holidays. Offering unlimited income potential based on commission and bonuses. Guaranteed salary during training process. Send resume to 2850 Broad St., Sumter, SC 29150.

Manufactured Housing

F/T Temporary Maintenance Technician needed for apartment communities located in Sumter, Camden & Lugoff, SC areas. Performs various maintenance duties necessary to maintain & enhance the value of the community. Duties include plumbing, light electrical, painting, cleaning, etc. Applicant must have own tools & reliable transportation.

Please email your information to resume@boydmanagement.com or fax it to 803-419-6577. EOE

Turn your Tax Refund into your dream home! We have quality used refurbished mobile homes. We specialize in on the lot financing. Low credit score is OK. Call 843-389-4215 AND also visit our Face Book page (M & M Mobile Homes).

Land & Lots for Sale Reduced Dalzell-Rembert 3 Mobile Home Lots remaining!

Investors or individuals! Call Burch 803-720-4129 7am-7pm

TRANSPORTATION

Autos For Sale 2014 Honda Accord EX L White Metallic, Low mileage, tinted windows & honda accessories $21,500 OBO Call 803-968-5627

Miscellaneous

Help Wanted Part-Time Modern Turf is hiring for Seasonal & Part Time Positions. Opportunities are available now through September. Sod stackers & Experienced tractor Operators. Come to the Rembert Office, 8840 Camden Hwy, to fill out an application.

Refurbished batteries as low as $45. New batteries as low as $70.

Auto Electric Co., 102 Blvd Rd. 803-773-4381

RENTALS

LEGAL NOTICES

Unfurnished Homes Nice 3 Br, 3 Ba, downtown historical district, refrig, stove, dishwasher, C/H/A, hardwood floors, FP, fenced in yard, lg. workshop with C/H/A, alarm system. No Pets. $1000 mo.

Call 803-491-5375.

1919 W. Oakland Ave. 3BR/1.5BA for rent Appl's included, $800/mo + $800/dep. 803-651-8198.

Legal Notice This is a public notice by Boler, Maggie Anne.

A commercial registration of property known as 1002 Beckridge Drive, Sumter, South Carolina 29154. Hereinafter, under a security claim and security interest lien in the amount of $1,000,000.00 pending an agreeable resolution.

Mobile Home Rentals

Beer & Wine License

3BR, 2BA MH available April 1st.

Call 803-481-2031

STATEBURG COURTYARD 2 & 3 BRs 803-494-4015

Vacation Rentals Church Branch: 3 Br, screened porch, pier, swimming area, rent weekly. Call Bobby Sisson at 803-464-2730

REAL ESTATE Homes for Sale

EMPLOYMENT

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS DOCKET NO. 15-CP-43-02451 (013263-07573)

Industrial Maintenance Co. seeking experienced individual with knowledge in various specialty coatings, floor coatings, tank linings, etc.

Concrete and grout work experience a plus. Send resume to: chris@lasmithcompany.com Contact Chris Martin at 803-468-6572.

Oaklawn MHP: 2 BR M.H.'s, water /sewer/garbage pk-up incl'd. RV parking avail. Call 803-494-8350

MERCHANDISE

SUMMONS Deficiency Judgment Waived

CNA's FT & PT 3p-11p shifts. Apply in person at NHC Healthcare Sumter, 1018 N. Guignard Dr. Sumter, SC 29150 (EOE)

Full Time EXPERIENCED line Cook. 2 yrs min. experience. Fast paced Restaurant. Exp on grill, saute & fry stations. Apply at Simply Southern Bistro 65 W Wesmark Blvd.

469-8502

Notice Of Application Notice is hereby given that Layers intends to apply to the South Carolina Department of Revenue for a license permit that will allow the sale and ON premises consumption of Beer, Wine and Liquor at 1737 Peach Orchard Road, Sumter, SC 29154. To object to the issuance of this permit / license, written protest must be postmarked no later than April 6, 2016. For a protest to be valid, it must be in writing, and should include the following information: (1) the name, address and telephone number of the person filing the protest; (2) the specific reasons why the application should be denied; (3) that the person protesting is willing to attend a hearing (if one is requested by the applicant); (4) that the person protesting resides in the same county where the proposed place of business is located or within five miles of the business; and (5) the name of the applicant and the address of the premises to be licensed. Protests must be mailed to: S.C. Department of Revenue, ABL, P.O. Box 125, Columbia, South Carolina 29214-0907; or Faxed to: (803) 896-0110.

1530 Mooneyham Rd 3BR 1BA $65k Call 803-236-2232 or 803-236-5809 3BR 2BA Brick Home Approx 1800 sq ft. Hdwd floors throughout, granite counter tops, completely renovated. Alice Dr School Dist. $131K Call 803-316-6129

LPN/RN Positions - 12 hour shifts.

Please apply in person at: NHC HealthCare Sumter, 1018 North Guignard Dr., Sumter, SC. EOE Local Tree Co. seeking CDL drivers, bucket operators, tree climbers & groundsmen.

Call 803-478-8299

Plaintiff, v.

Emma Lou Thomas, as Trustee for Raymond Leon Jackson under the Will of Leon Jackson ; Ora Mae Spann, as Substitute Trustee for Raymond Leon Jackson under the Will of Leon Jackson; Raymond Leon Jackson; Brenda Young; Any Heirs-at-Law or Devisees of Leon Jackson, Deceased, their heirs, Personal Representatives, Administrators, Successors and Assigns, and all other persons entitled to claim through them; all unknown persons with any right, title or interest in the real estate described herein; also any persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America, being a class designated as John Doe; and any unknown minors or persons under a disability being a class designated as Richard Roe; Defendant(s).

TO THE DEFENDANT(S): Emma Lou Thomas, as Trustee for Raymond Leon Jackson under the Will of Leon Jackson and any Heirs-at-Law or Devisees of Leon Jackson, Deceased, their heirs, Personal Representatives, Administrators, Successors and Assigns, and all other persons entitled to claim through them; all unknown persons with any right, title or interest in the real estate described herein; also any persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America, being a class designated as John Doe; and any unknown minors or persons under a disability being a class designated as Richard Roe YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to appear and defend by answering the Complaint in this foreclosure action on property located at 971 Industrial Boulevard, Sumter, South Carolina 29150-6703, being designated in the County tax records as TMS# 250-14-01-001, of which a copy is herewith served upon you, and to serve a copy of your Answer on the subscribers at their offices, 220 Executive Center Drive, Suite 109, Post Office Box 100200, Columbia, South Carolina, 29202-3200, within thirty (30) days after the service hereof, exclusive of the day of such service; except that the United States of America, if named, shall have sixty (60) days to answer after the service hereof, exclusive of the day of such service; and if you fail to do so, judgment by default will be rendered against you for the relief demanded in the Complaint.

TO MINOR(S) OVER FOURTEEN YEARS OF AGE AND/OR MINOR(S) UNDER FOURTEEN YEARS OF AGE AND THE PERSON WITH WHOM THE MINOR(S) RESIDES AND/OR TO PERSONS UNDER SOME LEGAL DISABILITY: YOU ARE FURTHER SUMMONED AND NOTIFIED to apply for the appointment of a Guardian Ad Litem within thirty (30) days after the service of this Summons upon you. If you fail to do so, Plaintiff will apply to have the appointment of the Guardian ad Litem Nisi, Anne Bell Fant, made absolute. Columbia, South Carolina January 11, 2016

LIS PENDENS Deficiency Judgment Waived NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT an action has been or will be commenced in this Court upon complaint of the above-named Plaintiff against the above-named Defendant(s) for the foreclosure of a certain mortgage of real estate given

by Leon Jackson and Maybelle Jackson to Wachovia Bank, National Association dated March 24, 2008, and recorded in the Office of the RMC/ROD for Sumter County on March 28, 2008, in Mortgage Book 1103 at Page 250. Wells Fargo Bank, NA is successor by merger to Wachovia Bank, National Association. The premises covered and affected by the said mortgage and by the foreclosure thereof were, at the time of the making thereof and at the time of the filing of this notice, described as follows: All and singular that certain tract of land in the County of Sumter, State of South Carolina, designated as Lot No. 1 on a plat made by Joseph Palmer, C.E. dated December 29, 1943 and bounded as follows: on the North by lands now or formerly owned by Eloise Webster and measuring thereon 151.25 feet; on the East by Lot No. 7 and measuring thereon 41 feet; on the South by Lot No.2 and measuring thereon 150 feet; and on the West by a narrow street separating property from Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and measuring thereon 61 feet.

ALSO: All that piece, parcel or lot of

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CLASSIFIED DEADLINES

11:30 a.m. the day before for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday edition.

9:30 a.m. Friday for Saturday’s edition 11:30 a.m. Friday for Sunday’s edition.

We will be happy to change your ad if an error is made; however we are not responsible for errors after the first run day. We shall not be liable for any loss or expense that results from the printing or omission of an advertisement.

We reserve the right to edit, refuse or cancel any ad at any time.

Summons & Notice land situate, lying and being in the County of Sumter, State of South Carolina, designated as Lot No. 2 on a plat of 27 lots approximately one mile South of The City of Sumter on a plat of Joseph Palmer, CE dated December 29, 1943 and of record in the Office of the RMC for Sumter County in Plat Book Z-7 at page 53.

Said lot being more fully described as delineated as follows: on the North by Lot No. 1 as shown on said plat and measuring thereon 150 feet; on the East by Lot No. 7 as shown on said plat and measuring thereon 50 feet; on the South by Lot No. 3 as shown on said plat and measuring thereon 150 feet; and on the West by an unnamed street as shown on said plat and measuring thereon 50 feet.

Be all of said measurements a little more or a little less. This being the same property conveyed to Leon Jackson and Maebelle Jackson by deed of Hattie Galloway dated September 5, 1967 and recorded on September 7, 1967 in Book N9 at Page 390 in the Office of the Sumter County Clerk of Court and the same property conveyed to Leon Jackson and Maybell Jackson by deed of Lucie Anne C. Eldridge dated September 7, 1967 and recorded on September 7, 1967 in Book N9 at Page 389 in the Office of the Sumter County Clerk of Court. Subsequently, Maybell Jackson a/k/a Maebelle Jackson a/k/a Maebelle J. Jackson died testate on or about July 17, 2012, leaving her interest in the subject property to her heir and/or devisee, namely Leon Jackson.

Subsequently, Leon Jackson died on June 17, 2015, leaving the subject property to his heirs and/or devisees, namely, Raymond Leon Jackson, Emma Lou Thomas, as Trustee for Raymond Leon Jackson under the Will of Leon Jackson , Ola Mae Spann as Substitute Trustee for Raymond Leon Jackson under the Will of Leon Jackson, and Brenda Young, as is more fully preserved in the Probate records for Sumter County in Case No. 2015-ES-41-439.

Property Address: 971 Industrial Blvd Sumter, SC 29150-6703 TMS# 250-14-01-001 NOTICE TO THE DEFENDANTS: Emma Lou Thomas, as Trustee for Raymond Leon Jackson under the Will of Leon Jackson and any Heirs-at-Law or Devisees of Leon Jackson, Deceased, their heirs, Personal Representatives, Administrators, Successors and Assigns, and all other persons entitled to claim through them; all unknown persons with any right, title or interest in the real estate described herein; also any persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America, being a class designated as John Doe; and any unknown minors or persons under a disability being a class designated as Richard Roe YOU WILL PLEASE TAKE NOTICE that the Summons and Complaint, of which the foregoing is a copy of the Summons, were filed with the Clerk of Court for Sumter County, South Carolina on November 4, 2015.

Columbia, South Carolina January 11, 2016

NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE INTERVENTION PLEASE TAKE NOTICE THAT pursuant to the South Carolina Supreme Court Administrative Order 2011-05-02-01, you may have a right to Foreclosure Intervention. To be considered for any available Foreclosure Intervention, you may communicate with and otherwise deal with the Plaintiff through its law firm, Rogers Townsend and Thomas, PC. Rogers Townsend and Thomas, PC represents the Plaintiff in this action. Our law firm does not represent you. Under our ethical rules, we are prohibited from giving you any legal advice. You must submit any requests for Foreclosure Intervention consideration within 30 days from the date you are served with this Notice.

IF YOU FAIL, REFUSE, OR VOLUNTARILY ELECT NOT TO PARTICIPATE IN FORECLOSURE INTERVENTION, THE FORECLOSURE ACTION MAY PROCEED.

ORDER APPOINTING GUARDIAN AD LITEM NISI Deficiency Judgment Waived It appearing to the satisfaction of the Court, upon reading the Motion for the appointment of Anne Bell Fant as Guardian Ad Litem Nisi for any unknown minors and persons who may be under a disability, it is ORDERED that, pursuant to Rule 17, SCRCP, Anne Bell Fant, be and hereby is appointed Guardian Ad Litem Nisi on behalf of all unknown minors and all unknown persons under a disability, all of whom may have or may claim to have some interest in or claim to the real property commonly known as 971 Industrial Boulevard, Sumter, South Carolina 29150-6703; that Anne Bell Fant is empowered and directed to appear on behalf of and represent said Defendant(s), unless the said Defendant(s), or someone on their

Summons & Notice behalf, shall within thirty (30) days after service of a copy hereof as directed, procure the appointment of a Guardian or Guardians Ad Litem for the said Defendant(s), and it is FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this Order shall forthwith be served upon the said Defendant(s) Emma Lou Thomas, as Trustee for Raymond Leon Jackson under the Will of Leon Jackson and any Heirs-at-Law or Devisees of Leon Jackson, Deceased, their heirs, Personal Representatives, Administrators, Successors and Assigns, and all other persons entitled to claim through them; all unknown persons with any right, title or interest in the real estate described herein; also any persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America, being a class designated as John Doe; and any unknown minors or persons under a disability being a class designated as Richard Roe by publication thereof in the The Item, a newspaper of general circulation in the County of Sumter, State of South Carolina, once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks, together with the Summons in the above entitled action. James C. Campbell Clerk of Court for Sumter County Sumter, South Carolina February 25, 2016 Rogers Townsend and Thomas, PC ATTORNEYS FOR PLAINTIFF Robert P. Davis (SC Bar #74030), Robert.Davis@rtt-law.com Andrew W. Montgomery (SC Bar #79893) Andrew.Montgomery@rtt-law.com John J. Hearn (SC Bar # 6635), John.Hearn@rtt-law.com Kevin T. Brown (SC Bar # 064236), Kevin.Brown@rtt-law.com Jason D. Wyman (SC Bar # 100271), Jason.Wyman@rtt-law.com Andrew M. Wilson (SC Bar# 72553), Andrew.Wilson@rtt-law.com 100 Executive Center Drive, Suite 201 Post Office Box 100200(29202) Columbia, SC 29210 (803) 744-4444 A-4565284 03/08/2016, 03/15/2016, 03/22/2016

IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS C/A NO. 2015-CP-43-02646 ORDER APPOINTING GUARDIAN AD LITEM STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF SUMTER CitiMortgage, Inc., Plaintiff vs.

The Personal Representative, if any, whose name is unknown, of the Estate of Isabella Golden; Nichelle Youngblood and any other Heirs-at-Law or Devisees of Isabella Golden, Deceased, their heirs, Personal Representatives, Administrators, Successors and Assigns, and all other persons entitled to claim through them; all unknown persons with any right, title or interest in the real estate described herein; also any persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America, being a class designated as John Doe; and any unknown minors or persons under a disability being a class designated as Richard Roe, Defendants.

It appearing to the satisfaction of the Court, upon reading the Motion for the Appointment of Kelley Y. Woody, Esq. as Guardian ad Litem for all unknown persons and persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America (which are constituted as a class designated as "John Doe") and any unknown minors and persons who may be under a disability (which are constituted as a class designated as "Richard Roe"), it is ORDERED that, pursuant to Rule 17, SCRCP, Kelley Y. Woody, Esq. is appointed Guardian ad Litem on behalf of all unknown persons and persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America (constituted as a class and designated as "John Doe"), all unknown minors or persons under a disability (constituted as a class and designated as "Richard Roe"), all of which have or may claim to have some interest in the property that is the subject of this action, commonly known as 35 Highland Avenue, Sumter, SC 29150, that Kelley Y. Woody, Esq. is empowered and directed to appear on behalf of and represent all unknown persons and persons who may be in the military service of the United States of America, constituted as a class and designated as "John Doe", all unknown minors and persons under a disability, constituted as a class and designated as "Richard Roe", unless the Defendants, or someone acting on their behalf, shall, within thirty (30) days after service of a copy of this Order as directed below, procure the appointment of a Guardian or Guardians ad Litem for the Defendants constituted as a class designated as "John Doe" or "Richard Roe".

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that a copy of this Order shall be served upon the unknown Defendants by publication in the The Item, a

NOTICE OF AWARD HOME INVESTMENT PARTNERSHIPS PROGRAM The South Carolina State Housing Finance and Development Authority has awarded HOME Investment Partnership Program funds (HOME Program) to Buckeye Community Sixty Five, LLC in the amount of ($480,000).

These HOME funds have been awarded to develop 30 affordable housing units eight of which are designated HOME assisted.

Hospitality Manager Duck Bottom Plantation Hiring full time Hospitality Manager responsible for total guest satisfaction, setting resort reservations, marketing, event planning, & lodge management. Resumes forwarded to info@duckbottomplantation.com Help wanted for mobile home set up. Exp. a plus but not necessary.

Call Michael 803-464-0594.

Summons & Notice

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6 Middle St. Price reduced. 3 or 4 Br. 2 Ba. C/H/A. New construction.

Financing avail. $330 mo. 464-5960

SPOT IT! IN CLASSIFIEDS Call the Classifed Dept.

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This HOME award will increase the number of affordable housing units available for lease in the community to low-income households and may also provide contrac ng and employment opportuni es. The HOME Program is an Equal Housing Opportunity Program and is subject to the requirements of the Fair Housing Act of 1988, as amended. Minority, women, and Sec on 3 businesses (as defined by 24 CFR 135) are encouraged to par cipate.

Buckeye Community Sixty Five, LLC does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, sex, na onal origin, familial status or disability in the admission or access to, or treatment of or employment in, its federally assisted programs or ac vi es. Anyone with ques ons concerning this HOME funded project should contact: Buckeye Community Sixty Five, LLC Steven J. Boone President of the Managing Member at 3021 E. Dublin Granville Road Columbus Ohio 43231.

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Summons & Notice

newspaper of general circulation in the County of Sumter, State of South Carolina, once a week for three (3) consecutive weeks, together with the Summons in the above entitled action.

SUMMONS AND NOTICE TO THE DEFENDANT(S) ALL UNKNOWN PERSONS WITH ANY RIGHT, TITLE OR INTEREST IN THE REAL ESTATE DESCRIBED HEREIN; ALSO ANY PERSONS WHO MAY BE IN THE MILITARY SERVICE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, BEING A CLASS DESIGNATED AS JOHN DOE; AND ANY UNKNOWN MINORS OR PERSONS UNDER A DISABILITY BEING A CLASS DESIGNATED AS RICHARD ROE; YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONED and required to answer the Complaint in the above action, a copy which is herewith served upon you, and to serve a copy of your Answer upon the undersigned at their offices, 2838 Devine Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29205, within thirty (30) days after service upon you, exclusive of the day of such service, and, if you fail to answer the Complaint within the time aforesaid, judgment by default will be rendered against you for relief demanded in the Complaint.

NOTICE NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the original Complaint in this action was filed in the office of the Clerk of Court for Sumter County on November 25, 2015.

TMS No. 229-15-03-014 Property Address: 35 Highland Avenue, Sumter, SC 29150 Riley Pope & Laney, LLC Post Office Box 11412 Columbia, South Carolina 29211 Telephone (803) 799-9993 Attorneys for Plaintiff

Estate Notice Sumter County

NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF ESTATES Persons having claim against the following estates are required to deliver or mail their claims to the indicated Personal Representatives, appointed to administer these estates, and to file their claims on Form #371PC with the Probate Court of Sumter County Courthouse, N. Main Street, Sumter, SC, 29150, on or before the date that is eight months after the date of the first publication of this Notice to Creditors, (unless previously barred by operation of Section 62-3-803), or such persons shall be forever barred as to heir claims. All claims are required to be presented in written statements, indicating the name and the address of the claimant, the basis of the claim, the amount claimed, the date when the claim will become due, the nature of any uncertainty as to the amount claimed and the date when due, and a description of any security as to the claim.

Estate:

Personal Representative Marlene C. Lindsey Young

C/O J. David Weeks Attorney at Law PO Box 370 Sumter, SC 29151 Estate:

NOTICE OF PENDENCY OF ACTION NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT an action has been commenced and is now pending or is about to be commenced in the Circuit Court upon the complaint of the above named Plaintiff against the above named Defendant for the purpose of foreclosing a certain mortgage of real estate heretofore given by Isabella Golden to CitiMortgage, Inc. bearing date of October 24, 2006 and recorded November 1, 2006 in Mortgage Book 1051 at Page 1330 in the Register of Mesne Conveyances/Register of Deeds/Clerk of Court for Sumter County, in the original principal sum of Forty Six Thousand Two Hundred and 00/100 Dollars ($46,200.00).

Thereafter, by assignment recorded on August 19, 2014 in Book 1204 at Page 847, the mortgage was assigned to the Plaintiff., and that the premises effected by said mortgage and by the foreclosure thereof are situated in the County of Sumter, State of South Carolina, and is described as follows: All that certain piece, parcel or lot of land with the improvements thereon, if any, situate, lying and being in the Sumter Township, County of Sumter, State of South Carolina, designated as Lot 37 on that certain plat recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds for Sumter County in Plat Book 2000 at Page 355.

Pursuant to Section 30-5-250 of the Code of Laws for South Carolina, (1976, as amended) reference to said plat is hereby made for the metes, bounds, courses and/or distances of the property delineated thereon.

Albertha W. Wheeler #2016ES4300140

Roosevelt Collins, Sr. #2016ES4300162

Personal Representative Larry A. Collins, Sr. 171 Rosecliff Circle Hopkins, SC 29061

Estate:

Rachel Joyce Farmer Keels #2016ES4300147

Personal Representative Hyatt Ann Keels Brandt C/O Franchelle Millender Attorney at Law 1441 Main Street, Suite 725 Columbia, SC 29201

Estate:

James William Broadway, Jr. #2016ES4300169

Personal Representative Michael Shawn Broadway 136 Hilton View Drive Chapin, SC 29036

Estate:

William Charles Clemons #2016ES4300126

Estate Notice Sumter County

Estate Notice Sumter County

Estate Notice Sumter County

NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF ESTATES

NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF ESTATES

NOTICE TO CREDITORS OF ESTATES

Persons having claim against the following estates are required to deliver or mail their claims to the indicated Personal Representatives, appointed to administer these estates, and to file their claims on Form #371PC with the Probate Court of Sumter County Courthouse, N. Main Street, Sumter, SC, 29150, on or before the date that is eight months after the date of the first publication of this Notice to Creditors, (unless previously barred by operation of Section 62-3-803), or such persons shall be forever barred as to heir claims. All claims are required to be presented in written statements, indicating the name and the address of the claimant, the basis of the claim, the amount claimed, the date when the claim will become due, the nature of any uncertainty as to the amount claimed and the date when due, and a description of any security as to the claim.

Persons having claim against the following estates are required to deliver or mail their claims to the indicated Personal Representatives, appointed to administer these estates, and to file their claims on Form #371PC with the Probate Court of Sumter County Courthouse, N. Main Street, Sumter, SC, 29150, on or before the date that is eight months after the date of the first publication of this Notice to Creditors, (unless previously barred by operation of Section 62-3-803), or such persons shall be forever barred as to heir claims. All claims are required to be presented in written statements, indicating the name and the address of the claimant, the basis of the claim, the amount claimed, the date when the claim will become due, the nature of any uncertainty as to the amount claimed and the date when due, and a description of any security as to the claim.

Persons having claim against the following estates are required to deliver or mail their claims to the indicated Personal Representatives, appointed to administer these estates, and to file their claims on Form #371PC with the Probate Court of Sumter County Courthouse, N. Main Street, Sumter, SC, 29150, on or before the date that is eight months after the date of the first publication of this Notice to Creditors, (unless previously barred by operation of Section 62-3-803), or such persons shall be forever barred as to heir claims. All claims are required to be presented in written statements, indicating the name and the address of the claimant, the basis of the claim, the amount claimed, the date when the claim will become due, the nature of any uncertainty as to the amount claimed and the date when due, and a description of any security as to the claim.

Estate:

Personal Representative Eugene Canty, Sr. C/O Calvin K. Hastie, Sr. Attorney at Law 7 East Hampton Avenue Sumter, SC 29150

Estate:

Estate:

Shirley Ray Lowery Ratcliff #2016ES4300137

Personal Representative Russell Laverne Ratcliff

C/O J. David Weeks Attorney at Law PO Box 370 Sumter, SC 29151 Estate:

Frank McDaniel #2016ES4300156

Personal Representative Victoria V McDaniel 121 Chappell Sumter, SC 29150

Raymond Charles Davenport #2016ES4300168

Personal Representative Raymond F. Davenport II PO Box 330 Dalzell, SC 29040

Estate:

Dorothy McCants Lawrence #2016ES4300160

Estate:

Estate:

Mary Pringle Moore #2016ES4300134

Personal Representative Grace Moore Covington

6411 Ridgeview Commons Dr. Charlotte, NC 28269 Estate:

Dorothy Grooms Geddings #2016ES4300152

Personal Representative Betty Katherine Barrs 1715 North Pike East Sumter, SC 29153

Estate:

Robert Alston, Jr. #2016ES4300176

Personal Representative David E. Alston C/O Sharon Clark Attorney at Law PO Drawer 880 Sumter, SC 29151

Estate:

Lois Jones Mayhew #2016ES4300128

Personal Representative Salinda Mayhew Larabee

C/O Kenneth Hamilton Attorney at Law PO Box 52359 Sumter, SC 29152 Estate:

Esther Theresa Jaxtheimer #2016ES4300167

Personal Representative Robert B. Jaxtheimer C/O Kenneth Hamilton Attorney as Law PO Box 52359 Sumter, SC 29152

Estate: Herbert F Quattlebaum #2016ES4300159 Personal Representative Mary Quattlebaum 1675 Yarborough Road Lynchburg, SC 29080

Estate:

Minerva Beyda Seruya #2016ES4300133

Personal Representative Aaron Seruya

4870 Westwind Drive Myrtle Beach, SC 29579

Annette Frierson #2016ES4300165

Personal Representative James L. Frye 2235 Nettles Road Sumter, SC 29154

Estate:

Charles L. Kirven #2016ES4300175

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Grandma's boy Ethan Emanual Blanding celebrates his second birthday today March 22, 2015 - March 22, 2016 Happy birthday Ethan!

We Love you. From your Nonny, Tonya Mack-Canty, Mom, Dad, Grandma's & Pa-Pa's Aunts & Uncles.

Estate: Flonnie Louise Dawkins Medlin #2016ES4300174 Personal Representative Deborah Edens C/O Atty John E. Miles, Sr Attorney as Law PO Box 2687 Sumter, SC 29151

Personal Representative Kimberly Roberts 18 Clearwater Lane Savannah, GA 31419

Estate:

Lawrence McKnight #2016ES4300127

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Personal Representative Glenda McKnight

C/O Larry Weston Attorney at Law 201 North Main Street Sumter, SC 29150

Personal Representative Beverly L Budden 975 Jubilee Drive Apt 102 Sumter, SC 29153

Personal Representative Mary Ann Byrley

C/O Phillip H. Albergotti Attorney at Law PO Box 357 Myrtle Beach, SC 29578

Keith E. Canty #2016ES4300144

In Memory

Estate:

In Memory In Loving Memory of Spc. Emanual L. Blanding 02/27/1986 - 03/22/09 Its been 7 years today and we thought of you , but thats nothing new. We thought about you yesterday and days before that too.

We think of you in silence, We often speak your name. All we have are memories and your picture in a frame. Your memory is a keepsake from which we 'll never part. God has you in his arms, we have you in our hearts.

Love, Ebony, Tonya, Matthew, Matthew Jr., Carla, Grandma, Granddad, Aunts, Uncles & Cousins

Van Alfred Johnson #2016ES4300158

Personal Representative Becky T Johnson 4020 Mt Sinai Church Road Lynchburg, SC 29080

Estate:

Mary Lee Coker #2016ES4300143

Personal Representative Timothy Wayne Coker

2645 Bowden Drive Creedmoor, NC 27522 Estate:

Genevieve Buczkowski #2016ES4300130

Personal Representative Linda M. Darrah

3175 Caitlynn Drive Sumter, SC 29154 Estate:

Michael Ira Sandlofer #2016ES4300163

Personal Representative Sharon V. Sandlofer C/O Thomas Player, Jr. Attorney at Law PO Box 3690 Sumter, SC 29151

Estate:

Donald Edward Bennington #2016ES4300148

Personal Representative Kathrene C Bennington 2890 Soye Drive Dalzell, SC 29040

Estate:

Mary Octavia Mahon #2016ES4300171

Personal Representative John M. Mahon, Jr. 1420 Wellington Drive Columbia, SC 29204

Estate:

Sabrina B McCown #2016ES4300149

Personal Representative Joseph B McCown 1780 Anburn Drive Sumter, SC 29154

Nicole "Buffie" Ray 07/12/1970 - 03/22/2013 God saw you getting tired. When a cure was not to be. He wrapped his arms around you and whispered, "Come To Me" God's garden must be Beautiful. He only takes The Best.

Your Daughter, Niya, Sisters, Brothers, Nieces & Nephews

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On April 10th let everyone know how much you love your pet by placing an ad in the Sunday, April 10th issue of The Sumter Item.

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Name ______________________________________ Phone ________________ Address ___________________________________________________________ City ____________________________ State ____________ Zip _____________ Pet’s name _________________________________________________________ Owner’s Name _____________________________________________________ Message (limit 12 words) ___________________________________________________ Payment must accompany order: Total $ ______________ â?? Check â?? Visa â?? Mastercard If paying with credit card: Card No.______________________ Exp. date_________________ Signature _______________________________________________________________________

20 N. Magnolia Street • Sumter, SC

803-774-1263

or email mary@theitem.com