Latest South Carolina news, sports, business and entertainment

HACKED TAX RETURNS-GOVERNOR

Haley: Agencies to help people sign up for service

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Gov. Nikki Haley has directed her Cabinet to come up with creative ways to help South Carolina residents sign up for a credit monitoring service offered through the state.

The Republican governor gave directors of her 16 Cabinet agencies until Tuesday to submit their ideas, which state attorneys will review for privacy concerns.

The state is offering a year of the Experian service ProtectMyID after an international computer hacker accessed millions of Social Security numbers and business records from the state’s tax collection agency.

The service includes a year of daily monitoring of the three credit bureaus and a lifetime of over-the-phone help on resolving identity theft after it happens. Haley says she wishes she had such help through the process when her identity was stolen years ago.

SUPERSTORM-SHIP

3-day search ends for ship captain off NC coast

ELIZABETH CITY, N.C. (AP) — The Coast Guard has given up its search for the captain of a tall ship that sank off the North Carolina coast during Hurricane Sandy.

The Coast Guard said Thursday its search with ships, helicopters, and large planes failed to find 63-year-old Robin Walbridge of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Walbridge was captain of the three-masted tall ship HMS Bounty. It sank before dawn Monday in hurricane-churned waters off Cape Hatteras.

The crew abandoned ship in two life rafts, and the Coast Guard rescued 14 crew members. Forty-two-year-old Claudene Christian was among those rescued, but she died.

The search continued for days despite rough seas in hopes the expert seaman could survive.

The ship was built for the 1962 film “Mutiny on the Bounty” and was featured in several other films.

HONDA PLANT EXPANSION-SOUTH CAROLINA

Honda to expand SC plant, add 65 jobs

TIMMONSVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Honda Motor Co. is moving production of its two-seat all-terrain vehicles from a plant in Mexico to its Timmonsville facility, adding 65 new jobs.

The company made the announcement Thursday at the same time it celebrated making 2.5 million all-terrain vehicles at the South Carolina plant.

The new line of two-seat vehicles should be in place next summer. Honda is investing an additional $27 million in the Timmonsville plant, which opened in 1998 and has exclusively made ATVs.

Honda says the market for all-terrain vehicles that seat more than one person is growing in the U.S.

Honda says the Mexican plant can now focus on making more motorcycles and mo-peds that are in demand in that country.

TRICK-OR-TREAT ASSAULT

Man arrested after 10-year-old girl fondled

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Richland County deputies say a 56-year-old man tried to sexually assault a 10-year-old girl while she was out trick-or-treating in Columbia.

Investigators said William Brown fondled the girl, then got on top of her and dropped his pants Wednesday night.

Deputies say the girl screamed and her mother and other people in the neighborhood rushed over, pulling Brown her and holding him until officers arrived.

Brown is charged with kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He remains at the Richland County jail and it wasn’t known if he had a lawyer.

FOI DENIAL

Greenwood school district refuses FOI request

(Information in the following story is from: The Index-Journal, http://www.indexjournal.com )

GREENWOOD, S.C. (AP) — Greenwood School District 50 is refusing to turn over information about the resignation of a high school volleyball coach to a newspaper.

The Index-Journal of Greenwood filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the personnel file and emails concerning the employment of Emerald volleyball coach Gina Sargent.

The district says Sargent resigned, but she told the newspaper she felt like she was forced to quit.

A lawyer for the district says officials refused to give the newspaper the information because it would invade Sargent’s privacy and the file includes personal information like health records or a Social Security number.

But First Amendment lawyer Jay Bender says court rulings saying any information about a public employee’s official duties must be released and private information can be redacted.

SOLDIERS-MURDER PLOT

Soldier, accomplice guilty in murder-for-hire case

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A U.S. soldier has been convicted in a murder-for-hire scheme in which prosecutors say he agreed to kill a man for undercover agents posing as drug cartel members.

A federal jury in Texas on Thursday found 29-year-old Samuel Walker, a soldier from Colorado Springs Colo., guilty of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire.

An accomplice, 28-year-old Calvin Epps of Hopkins, S.C., was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and marijuana in the same plot. Both were also convicted of firearms charges.

Walker and Hopkins were the last of seven defendants charged in the case.

Prosecutors alleged Walker thought he was talking to a cartel boss when he agreed to kill a man who had stolen cocaine and recover the drugs. The cartel boss was really a Drug Enforcement Administration agent.

SCAROLINA-CAROLINA COLISEUM

SCarolina women to play game at Carolina Coliseum

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina women’s basketball team will play a game at the old Carolina Coliseum this season because of a scheduling conflict.

The Gamecocks game on January 17 against LSU had to be moved because Colonial Life Arena wasn’t available.

Deputy Athletics Director Charles Waddell says scheduling basketball games for this season was especially hard because the Southeastern Conference added Missouri and Texas A&M.

South Carolina hasn’t played at the 12,000-seat Carolina Coliseum since the new arena opened in 2002.

Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley says the school will market the game as a one-time return to a historic venue that opened in 1968.