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City: Maintenance code amendments need fine tuning BY ADRIENNE SARVIS adrienne@theitem.com After a public hearing for amendments to the city’s property maintenance code on Tuesday evening, Sumter City Council decided it would be best to hold a workshop to fine tune some of the proposed sections. Sumter Planning Department director George McGregor estimates that
there are more than 1,500 vacant and abandoned structures in Sumter, and the amendments would help to reduce that number by requiring owners of vacant residential property to register the structures with the city and pay a registration fee. According to the amendments, failure to register the vacant property with the city would result in a $250 fine every month the property re-
mains unregistered. The amendments to the property maintenance code propose that any residential property that has been vacant for 60 days would have to be registered with City of Sumter for $10 for the first year, $100 for the second, $500 for the third year and $1,000 for the fourth and subsequent years. The registration fees were the source of much concern. Councilwom-
Performance of healing
an Ione Dwyer said she agrees that the dilapidated houses and overgrown lots are eyesores and should be cleaned up, but she also thinks the city should take into consideration that some people may not be able to meet the criteria set forth by the amendments. “You’ve got to have some fees there,
SEE COUNCIL, PAGE A8
Congress sends clean DHS bill to president BY ERICA WERNER AND DAVID ESPO The Associated Press
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Sonji, BaBa Joseph, Gail and Karim Anderson of the musical group Healing Force perform for the crowd at Sumter County Library on Saturday as part of its Black History Month celebration. The family band played traditional African music and taught the audience some phrases to sing along.
WASHINGTON — Bitterly admitting defeat, the Republican-controlled Congress sent legislation to President Obama on Tuesday that funds the Department of Homeland Security without any of the immigration-related concessions they demanded for months. “Sanity is prevailing,” said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a former chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, before the House voted 257-167 in favor of the $40 billion spending bill, which Obama was expected to sign promptly. All 182 Democrats present voted for the bill, while it received only 75 Republican “yea” votes. “I am glad that House Republicans finally came to their senses,” said Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Califor-
nia, a top Democrat on the Homeland Security Committee. The outcome averted a partial agency shutdown, which would have begun Friday at midnight. It was a major victory for Obama and the Democrats, and a wholesale retreat for Republicans, who have spent months railing against an “unconstitutional overreach” by Obama in extending deportation stays and work permits to millions of immigrants illegally in this country. In the end, Republicans who’d tried to use the DHS spending bill to undo Obama’s actions had little to show but weeks of gridlock and chaotic spectacle on Capitol Hill in the wake of assuming full control of Congress in the November midterm elections. The turmoil brought the Homeland
SEE DHS, PAGE A8
Netanyahu addresses joint session of Congress Israeli PM uses opportunity to assail American policy on Iran
Opinions divided over Netanyahu’s address to Congress
BY ARON HELLER AND DEB RIECHMANN The Associated Press
BY HAMLET FORT hamlet@theitem.com
WASHINGTON — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress on Tuesday that an emerging agreement between Iran and the United States would all but guarantee that Tehran gets nuclear weapons and would be a very bad deal, drawing an extraordinarily blunt rebuttal from President Obama. In an appearance that has stirred political controversy in two countries, Netanyahu said “Iran has proven time and again that it cannot be trusted,” no matter what it says about permitting verification of the terms of any
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington on Tuesday. In a speech that stirred political intrigue in two countries, Netanyahu told Congress that negotiations underway between Iran and the U.S. would “all but guarantee” that Tehran will get nuclear weapons, a step that the world must avoid at all costs. House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, left, and Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, listen.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a speech to a joint session of Congress Tuesday amid debate on his perceived slight of President Obama and the White House’s efforts to strike a deal with Iran about its nuclear program. Netanyahu urged Congress to oppose the deal being negotiated between the Obama administration and Iran to freeze its nuclear program. He disagrees with the notion that the deal would restrict Iran’s access to nuclear weapons and said an armed Iran poses a grave threat to Israel, saying it “could well threaten the survival of my country.”
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