The State from Columbia, South Carolina • 25

THE STATE, COLUMBIA, S.C. Metro Report NEWS FROM RICHLAND AND LEXINGTON COUNTIES Richland councilman revives sales tax hike A 1 percent sales tax increase for Richland County is still an option, said councilman Tony Mizzell at a news conference on Tuesday. Mizzell, who proposed the special tax in August and killed the plan weeks later, said it was always his intention to keep the special tax on the table. Mizzell announced a plan to i investigate whether it would work in Richland County. He said he was contacting business, community leadership and tax-activist groups to help form a committee.

The committee would make a proposal to County Council by June. The 1 percent tax on all sales can only be collected by counties i if voters approve it first. The next referendum date is November 2000. Midlands Tech official will challenge Papadea Rick Noble, director of development for Midlands Tech, will run against longtime Columbia City Council member Jim Papadea in the city's April elections. In a letter to supporters, Noble, 50, said he is running because Columbia is at a "crossroads in terms of growth and development." Among his civic activities, Noble, 50, was involved in landing the 1996 and 2000 Women's Olympic Marathon Trials; is founder and executive director of the Communities in Schools program; and is a founding board member of City Year Columbia.

Historian, folklorist Joyner won't appear Thursday Historian and folklorist Charles Joyner's appearance at USC, scheduled for Thursday evening, has been postponed because of a death in his family. His program, "Shared Traditions," will be rescheduled for sometime during the spring semester. Atkins, Cook claim seats on Chapin Town Council Incumbent Vivian "Bibi" Atkins and newcomer Elizabeth Cook won four-year terms on the Chapin Town Council in an election held Tuesday. Atkins and Cook were the only names on the ballot, but they had to hold off a couple of in candidacies. Cook claimed 34 votes, and Atkins got 28.

Four write-in candidates received votes Tracie McGahee with 15, Jesse Frick with 14, Bob Shealy with 3 and Annette Stuck with 1. Frick, a longtime council member who didn't register as a candidate, got votes despite saying he felt it was time for someone else to do the job. STATE College-level courses merit more credit, teachers say a A uniform grading system should give extra credit to high school students enrolled in college-credit courses, educators and parents testified Tuesday at a state Board of Education hearing. A proposal the state school board will vote on next month gives students in Advanced Placement courses more academic credit than those who take dual-credit college courses. That disparity was a recurring theme during an hour-long hearing organized to gather reaction to a legislative mandate that takes effect in August.

State agency heads to get pay increases on Jan. 1 Y2K or not, the state's computers will calculate pay raises averaging 4.11 percent for the heads of 59 state agencies beginning Jan. 1. The State Budget and Control Board approved the salary increases Wednesday as directed by the General Assembly. Top salary, a 6 percent increase to $187,402, goes to University of South Carolina President John Palms.

Retiring Medical University of South Carolina President Jim Edwards also received a 6 percent increase to $171,194. Judge upholds state decision to ban speedway near forest A circuit judge has upheld a state decision that prohibits a speedway near the Francis Beidler Forest, a nationally known nature preserve between Charleston and Columbia. Circuit Judge J. Derham Cole said the Department of Health and Environmental Control acted properly when it denied a permit for the race track in 1998. Developers proposed the track just a few miles from the Beidler Forest in Dorchester County.

lawyers eral judge Tuesday to block mil- Because of lions of dollars in machine license Judge Joe Anderson refunds and other rebates. someone to oversee The lawyers want the money machine companies theoretically tens of millions of dol- uals named in lars for their clients and to cover Larry Richter and legal fees if a jury awards damages argued in Tuesday's against poker operators. Lawyers for The lawyers also accused own- have 15 days to ers of planning to sell machines or Anderson shortens hide profits so the gamblers who time. A hearing brought the suit couldn't collect if a set. jury sides with them.

Poker operators Urban League honors creators of opportunity Governor will speak at awards dinner for business, individuals Gamblers' I Attorneys for addicts want to seize license fees machine owners would get back By CLIF LeBLANC Staff Writer Attorneys for addicted gamblers who have sued the state's biggest video poker operators asked a fed- The Columbia Urban League has named 10 individuals and businesses as recipients of the league's 1999 Equal Opportunity Day Dinner Awards. The awards will be presented tonight at the League's 32nd Annual Dinner at Seawell's, 1125 Rosewood Drive. Gov. Jim Hodges will be the featured speaker at the 7 p.m. dinner, which will be preceded by a reception from 6 to 7 p.m.

The theme for the Equal Opportunity Day Dinner is Agenda 2000: Economic Empowerment. James T. McLawhorn, the Columbia Urban League's president and CEO, said the purpose of the Equal Opportunity Day Dinner is to promote and highlight the importance of equal opportunity to improving the quality of life for all. The award winners are: Preston H. Winkler, Clara M.

Langley and Ruth C. Simons, who will receive Community Service Awards. Winkler, associate director of governmental and community relations at USC, has coordinated the placement at USC of more than 500 youngsters in the League's Summer Work Experience Leadership Program. Langley has given freely of her time and resources to several community projects and initiatives, including the Double Dutch Forces and the Carolina Carillon Parade. She and her husband, Willis, also have employed numerous young adults in their McDonald's franchise.

Simons has recently retired after years as director of the V.V. Reid Nursery and Kindergarten. Under her leadership, the facility grew from a one-room operation to a full-service nursery and kindergarten. Simons will be recognized for her untiring leadership and strong work ethic in promoting high academic achievement for African American children for the past 46 years. Recipients of the Whitney M.

Young Award will be Earl M. Middleton and Rhett Jackson. Middleton, of Orangeburg, will be recognized for promoting equal opportunity as a nationally recognized businessman and a state elected official. He was the first African-American since Reconstruction to serve in the S.C. General Assembly, having been elected in 1974 to the House of Representatives.

Middleton's company was the first African-American realty in the Inmate calls likely taped, former jail chief testifies GREENVILLE A covert taping system may have recorded telephone conversations between inmates and their lawyers at the Greenville County jail, the former jail director says. Perry Eichor testified Monday that he ordered the tapes destroyed as soon as jail officials realized that telephones used by inmates were included in the taping system. Eichor testified at the trial of a lawsuit filed by five judges with offices at the jail. They say county officials violated federal laws by taping their telephone conversations without their consent. Attorney Jake Moore, who represents the four magistrates and a city judge, questioned Eichor about a memo marked "confidential" that he wrote to county administrator Gerald Seals in June 1995.

"On June 7, at approximately 5 p.m., I learned the problems we The Associated Press are having with the telephone recording system may be causing us to inadvertently 'eavesdrop' on other members of the law enforcement community," Eichor wrote. The memo said the system might have eavesdropped on telephones for inmates and police. "This may violate confidentiality regulations," Eichor wrote. In September, a Lexington lawyer was sentenced to four months in a federal prison for his role in leaking a videotape that is key evidence in a misconduct investigation of Lexington deputies and prosecutors. The sentencing of Jack Duncan for perjury was part of the investigation into whether local authorities violated federal wiretap laws and legal ethics.

The allegations are that the government taped Duncan having what should have been a secret conversation with his client, B.J. Quattlebaum, an accused murderer, who was later convicted. Hugg moving to new job Camille Bradford Hugg, who has been reporting the weather on Columbia's WLTX-TV since 1978, has been named the station's community affairs director. She'll continue on the air for one more month, fueling speculation former rival WIS-TV weatherman Jim Gandy soon will join WLTX as its chief meteorologist. Rich O'Dell, general manager at WLTX, brushed off any such suggestion Tuesday, saying, "We will begin a nationwide search for a lead weather person." Gandy had been meteorologist at WIS for 14 years when he was hired away last year by Gannett Broadcasting as a consultant.

Gannett purchased WLTX in early 1998. Because of a clause in his WIS contract, Gandy was prohibiting from working for a rival station in the market for a minimum of one year. That year is up at the end of November. But no one, including Gandy, would comment on such a scenario. "For years, my schedule has made it very difficult to have a normal life," Hugg said.

"I'm looking forward to my new role and to have the opportunity to be home at night having dinner with my husband, Bobby." WEDNESDAY, poker for a two-year amounted to this year. of licenses new machines licenses lapse 37,000 licensed half of them 31. Supreme Court to shut down any license in Langley Langley Swinton Swinton $4,000 per machine license. The fees roughly $65 million But the number changes regularly as begin operating and on old ones. There are about machines, but only come due each May The state ordered the industry July 1.

Refunds for Jackson with establishing the S.C. Community Bank, the only African-American bank in South Carolina, and revitalizing the neighborhood surrounding Benedict College. Swinton is president and CEO of Benedict College and is past chairman of the Greater Columbia Chamber of Commerce. The President's Citation will be presented to Cynthia Pryor Hardy, vice president of communications and program development for the Columbia Urban League. She is being honored for her outstanding and cutting-edge leadership and service to the Columbia Urban League for the past decade.

Two South Carolina business executives, William B. Timmerman, president and CEO of SCANA, and William R. Horton, president and chief operating officer of Blue Cross and Blue Shield's government programs division, will be presented the Virgil C. Summer Corporate Award. Timmerman and NOVEMBER 10, 1999 B3 pursue that, U.S.

District should appoint the 37 poker and 41 individthe suit, attorneys Richard Gergel motion. those defendants answer unless the response date has not been pay the state Horton Benjamin United States to be designated as a Coldwell Banker franchise. Jackson will be recognized for promoting social justice and equality for all. As a member of the United Methodist Southeastern Jurisdiction Committee, he played a major role in uniting the black and white conferences of the United Methodist Church. He is a founding member of the Columbia Luncheon Club and the Greater Columbia Community Relations Council.

For 37 years, he has worked to remove the Confederate flag from the State House dome. The Lincoln C. Jenkins Award will be presented to Steve Benjamin, director of state Probation, Parole and Pardon Services, because of his leadership and national accomplishments as a young professional. He was named 1999 Young Lawyer of the Year by the National Bar Association. Benjamin has a long history of community service and is a former member of the Columbia Urban League Board of Directors.

The John H. Whiteman Award will go to Dr. David H. Swinton for his leadership in community service and in promoting economic empowerment. Swinton is credited refunds force at that time would be issued after video gambling expires, said Vicki Ringer, spokeswoman for the Revenue Department that issues licenses.

Attorneys for addicted gamblers also are trying to block rebates of $1.2 million in surcharges the industry was due after the high court stopped a Nov. 2 referendum. The rebates began last week, Ringer said. Middleton Timmerman Simons Winkler Horton will receive the award in recognition of their companies' corporate social responsibility and support of the Columbia Urban League. SCANA will be recognized for its support of the Columbia Urban League's Summer Employment Leadership Program for the past decade.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield will be recognized for supporting the summer program as well as the League's College Internship Program. Both corporations have provided employment opportunities for many graduates of the Columbia Urban League's Welfare to Work Job Training Center. They continue to be major contributors to the annual Equal Opportunity Day Dinner. Veterans deserve more, Bush tells crowd PICKENS In an attempt to undermine Arizona Sen. John McCain's support in the military community, GOP presidential candidate George W.

Bush called on Americans Tuesday to pay a "debt of honor" to those who have served the nation on the battlefield. In a pre-Veterans Day speech delivered before a large crowd at the Pickens County Courthouse, the Texas governor said veterans have been ignored and treated poorly by their government. He said they deserve better. "Many veterans, it seems like, are remembered in Washington only on Veterans Day," Bush said. He proposed an overhaul of the veterans' health-care system, which he said had become too bureaucratic, involving too many snafus in processing claims and raising questions about coverage.

By LEE BANDY Staff Writer "This is no way to treat any citizen, much less veterans of the American armed forces," Bush said on a two-day bus tour across the "Golden Corner" of the Upstate. McCain, a Vietnam prisoner of war, has openly appealed to veterans' groups. South Carolina has some 400,000 veterans, a rich voter pool. No one has tried to organize them to the extent that McCain has. His rallies and public appearances usually are attended by hundreds of veterans who haven't participated in the political process.

Former Republican Gov. Carroll Campbell, who accompanied Bush, acknowledged that McCain is making inroads in the state. But he said Bush is still well ahead of the senator, and "he is going to stay ahead." In his latest swing through the state, which holds its first-in-theSouth primary Feb. 19, Bush was crisscrossing the vote-rich Upstate in a pair of buses. His was festooned with banners touting his name and calling for "A Fresh Start for America." At his first stop, about 200 people cheered Bush at a breakfast meeting at Jimmy's Family Restaurant in Easley.

Questions about Bush being unable to name leaders of the world's trouble spots still haunted him on this trip. But he treated i it with good humor. "My wife told me this morning that 'When you get to South Carolina, don't try to be charming and witty. Just be She also said, 'Don't get out there and try to show off, naming all the leaders," he said. Later in the afternoon, Bush went running with the Clemson cross-country team.

Most polls show Bush with a solid lead among Republicans, and ahead of Vice President Al Gore, leading some Republicans to his camp, believing he is the man who can win back the White House. Columbia welcomes Marines at ceremony By DOUG NYE Staff Writer Since Gannett purchased WLTX, the station has gone through several changes. O'Dell was brought in from the Cleveland market to replace Debbie Holland, who resigned. News co-anchor Trinell Moore left to pursue another career and was replaced by Deloris Keith. Co-anchor Gene Upright retired last month after more than 50 years in the business and was replaced by newcomer Michael Chisholm, who now co-anchors WLTX's 6 p.m.

and 11 p.m. newscasts with Keith. Last week, WLTX unveiled new studio sets and also launched its two-hour early morning (5-7 a.m.) newscast. O'Dell said the addition of a community-affairs director is a growth step for the station. "We were looking around for someone," O'Dell said, "and then we realized we had the perfect person in Camille right here at the station." Doug Nye edits TV Weekly and writes about television.

He can be reached at 771-8395 or by e-mail at Inside a packed ballroom at the posh Capital City Club, Marine Corps senior commanders were feted over glazed chicken and chocolate cheesecake on Tuesday. Meanwhile, several miles away, hundreds of grunts from the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit prepared for intense urban warfare exercises soon to commence. Gen. Terrence Dake, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, and Maj. Gen.

David Mize, commander of Marine Forces, Reserve, were honored at a luncheon hosted by the Budget and Control Board and S.C. Marine Corps Coordinating Council. By DAVE MONIZ Staff Writer Both were presented plaques during a ceremony in which they spoke at length about the importance of urban warfare training. Earlier Tuesday, Gov. Jim Hodges proclaimed this week Marine Corps week in the Palmetto State.

Marines from Camp Lejeune, N.C., are expected to begin the first of their urban warfare "scenarios" in Columbia in the next few days. Since arriving last week, the Marines have hovered in helicopters, scanned the city on reconnaissance and waited for orders at their encampment at a National Guard training site at Fort Jackson. Before leaving Nov. 18, they are expected to conduct three to four exercises where they practice hostage rescue and "precision raid" techniques. "I will tell you, the training we can do here in an urban environment is essential to the welfare of U.S.

Marines," said Col. Rick Tryon, commander of the 24th MEU. The Marines have released few details about the upcoming practice missions. Commanders say that's because they cannot conduct realistic training if those taking part know what's coming. To prove his point, one Marine officer invoked the ghost of a famous television character.

"I know nuuss-ink!" Marine Col. Michael Williams said, impersonating the TV sitcom character Sgt. Hans Schultz from "Hogan's Heroes." Hugg Plan for Richland 2 charter school withdrawn drawn its request to start a charter school in Richland 2. District officials learned by telephone late Monday afternoon that the Academy of America has decided not to pursue its plans to open the Academy my of Columbia, a school the group said would focus on entrepreneurship. A public input session was scheduled in Richland 2 for Tuesday, but no one showed up to speak about the charter school proposal.

A second public session slated for the By LORI ROBERTS Staff Writer A Michigan group has with- board's next meeting Nov. 23 has been canceled. Last month, the Richland 2 board authorized the district to conduct a preliminary review of the charter school application and notify the applicants of deficiencies as required by the state's 1996 Charter School Act. It was the second time the district has been approached about becoming the home of a charter school. The applicants of the first school also withdrew their request, saying they were unable to meet the required racial composition for charter schools.

As a result, the group could hot obtain funding or make necessary commitments to secure a teacher. The district determined the Southfield, group needed to re-address six major areas in the application, said Debra Hamm, Richland 2's chief academic officer. Those areas include governance and corporate structure; personnel; student and community support; educational programs and curriculum; school facilities and equipment; and finance, Hamm said. Calls to the Academy of America were not returned Tuesday. Hamm said the group indicated it might reapply at "another point in, time.".