HELP STUDENTS GET READY Gear Up For Learning short on school supples
A2 VOL. 118, NO. 242 WWW.THEITEM.COM
THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2013 | SUMTER, SOUTH CAROLINA
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Drug charges net $100K bond Tax-free weekend Judge levies stiff guidelines for alleged trafficker, distributor BY ROBERT J. BAKER bbaker@theitem.com A circuit court judge granted a $100,000 surety bond on Wednesday at Clarendon County Magistrate’s Court for a 24-yearold man charged in June with trafficking crack cocaine and other drug offenses. POLITE Christopher Polite of 1146 Waynes Drive in Manning will have to be at his home before 6 each night, maintain gainful employment
and have a professional bonds service in place, according to 12th Circuit Court Judge Michael Nettles. Polite was arrested June 24 after turning himself in to agents with the Clarendon County Narcotics Task Force. He was charged with one count of trafficking crack cocaine, three counts of distribution of crack cocaine and one count of distribution of marijuana. The task force had been looking for Polite since May 19 when a search warrant was executed SEE DRUGS, PAGE A8
‘He is a drug dealer. He is probably one of the (biggest) in this community. He just has a lot of pending charges. We believe he would be a flight risk and a danger to the community.’
begins Friday for school supplies BY ROBERT J. BAKER bbaker@theitem.com
Chris DuRant, 3rd Circuit Assistant Solicitor
South Carolina’s third-busiest shopping weekend of the year begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday and will allow parents and students alike a tax break on back-to-school items through midnight Sunday. The state Department of Revenue says
that “beginning at 12:01 a.m. on the first Friday in August and ending at midnight the following Sunday” there are exemptions to sales and use taxes. In plain English, that means from Friday through Sunday, the 8 percent sales tax Sumterites usually pay for SEE TAX-FREE, PAGE A6
SOME GOOD OL’ FASHIONED R&R LEFT: Team Shaw service members compete in a Cardboard Regatta boat race during the Junior Enlisted Appreciation Day Celebration at Shaw Air Force Base recently. Team Shaw units built boats out of cardboard and duct tape and raced from one end of the Woodland Pool to the other and back. BELOW: U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Michael Rosiere makes a balloon rose during the celebration. PHOTOS BY AIRMAN 1ST CLASS KRYSTAL M. JEFFERS / SPECIAL TO THE ITEM
RIGHT: U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Karl Deffert plays cornhole at the event. The celebration, hosted by Team Shaw’s Top 3, offered junior enlisted service members an afternoon of free food, activities and events.
Guardians are voices for the vulnerable BY JADE ANDERSON janderson@theitem.com The guardian ad litem program can offer volunteers a chance to help children in a unique way. “What we do is represent and advocate for the best interests of children who come into the legal system as a result of abuse or neglect,” said Deborah Wilson, circuit coordinator for the 3rd Judicial Circuit’s Cass Elias McCarter
Guardian Ad Litem program for the past 20 years. “In addition to working with the children, you are working with the parents or custodians and service providers. It can be heart WILSON wrenching and emotional. This is not a job you turn off at 5 p.m.” The program is always looking for volunteers, especially men. “We always need male volunteers
20 N. Magnolia St. Sumter, SC 29150 (USPS 525-900)
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because many of the families and children we come into contact with don’t have positive male role models,” Wilson said. “We fit the guardian with what the child needs. So if I have a teenage boy and all his issues are with his mother, I’ll try to find a male figure to be assigned to him.” She currently has 34 volunteers for Sumter, four of whom are men. “I get a lot of looks when I go into court,” Antonio Jones said. “They are
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surprised to see a male coming in being a guardian. I was told in the beginning, ‘we don’t usually get males volunteering for this stuff.’ I’m just one of those that care enough about the welfare of kids that I want to be involved.” He has two current cases, and in one, he is the only male in the child’s life. “I think he benefits from seeing and having a positive male role model SEE GUARDIAN, PAGE A8
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