Repeat offenders bill likely won’t advance ‘Crossover’ deadline means some legislation won’t be voted on this year WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2014
BY BRISTOW MARCHANT bmarchant@theitem.com (803) 774-1272
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SERVING SOUTH CAROLINA SINCE OCTOBER 15, 1894 3 SECTIONS, 26 PAGES | VOL. 119, NO. 167
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McELVEEN
A looming legislative deadline appears to be the end of the road for a bill sponsored by Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, that
would strengthen sentencing guidelines for repeat offenders. A bill that would add time to the sentences of anyone who commits a crime while out on bond likely won’t come up for a vote in the state Senate before a Thurs-
day deadline for legislation to pass out of at least one house, after one senator raised a procedural objection to the bill. “Unfortunately, I resolved myself a couple weeks ago
SEE BILL, PAGE A8
If the shoe fits, donate it
Path to the prize Check out the local high school baseball, softball playoffs bracket B5 PANORAMA
Microbrew festival is back downtown C1 DEATHS, B7 Samuel E. Steele Sr. Cleo Weeks Suzanne Marrs Susan J. Mack Rebecca T. Davis Joe Lee Nelson Joann Y. Richardson
John H. Blackmon Edward Williams William Roberts Elizabeth M. Kennedy David Williams Leon Eady Sr.
Reggie Hickmon, a forklift operator with Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated in Bishopville, digs for the right size pair of shoes. His company partnered with Samaritan’s Feet and Good Samaritans for All People to bring new shoes to about 150 children at Lower Lee Elementary on Monday.
Students receive footwear thanks to groups’ event
WEATHER, A10 STAY SAFE Heavy storms and rain throughout the day HIGH 84, LOW 66
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PHOTOS BY JADE REYNOLDS / THE SUMTER ITEM
Ashlyn Stuckey, left, washes a student’s feet as her mother, Candace Stuckey, adds some soap to the wash. Stuckey brought her 8-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son, Rhett, to the Samaritan’s Feet event at Lower Lee Elementary School on Monday because she thought it was “a great opportunity to learn to serve.”
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BY JADE REYNOLDS jade@theitem.com (803) 774-1250 Plenty of smiles and high-fives were shared as about 150 students at Lower Lee Elementary School received new pairs of shoes Monday. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. Consolidated in Bishopville partnered with Good Samaritans for All People and Samaritan’s Feet International to put on the event. “We’re excited to give them new shoes,” said Troy Santoscoy, plant manager for the Bishopville location. “Now they are ready for summer. We hope they’ll (the shoes) serve as encouragement and let them know they are loved.” This is the second year his company has partnered with these groups to put on
SEE SHOES, PAGE A8
At least 35 dead as South braces for more twisters LOUISVILLE, Miss. (AP) — Ruth Bennett died clutching the last child left at her day care center as a tornado wiped the building off its foundation. A firefighter who came upon the body gently pulled the toddler from her arms. “It makes you just take a breath now,” said next-door neighbor Kenneth Billingsley, who witnessed the scene at what was left of Ruth’s Child Care Center in this logging town of 6,600. “It makes you pay attention
to life.” Bennett, 53, was among at least 35 people killed in a two-day outbreak of twisters and other violent weather that pulverized homes from the Midwest to the Deep South. The child, whose name was not released, was alive when she was pulled from Bennett’s arms and was taken to a hospital. Her condition was not known. As crews in Mississippi and Alabama turned from search-and-rescue efforts to
cleanup, the South braced for a third round of potentially deadly weather on Tuesday. Tornadoes usually strike in the late afternoon and evening. One of the hardest-hit areas in Monday evening’s barrage of twisters was Tupelo, Miss., where a gas station looked as if it had been stepped on by a giant. Francis Gonzalez, who also owns a convenience store and Mexican restaurant attached to the service station, took cover with her
three children and two employees in the store’s cooler as the roof over the gas pumps was reduced to aluminum shards. “My Lord, how can all this happen in just one second?” she said in Spanish. On Tuesday, the growl of chain saws cut through the otherwise still, hazy morning in Tupelo. Massive oak trees, knocked over like toys, blocked roads. Neighbors helped one another cut away limbs. “This does not even look
like a place that I’m familiar with right now,” said Pam Montgomery, walking her dog in her neighborhood. “You look down some of the streets, and it doesn’t even look like there is a street.” By the government’s preliminary count, 11 tornadoes — including one that killed 15 people in Arkansas — struck the nation’s midsection on Sunday, and at least 25 ravaged the South
SEE STORMS, PAGE A8