Sunday, January 22, 2012

Newt Gingrich? I really don't understand you South Carolina...

    In a not so shocking move, South Carolinians have voted Newt Gingrich in as the candidate of choice in the GOP primary. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but your steadfast determination to live like a Third World country always astonishes me.To need to be pulled kicking and screaming from the antebellum South into the 21st Century is far beyond my ability to grasp. Sure you have your shrimp and grits,your pluff mud, and your history...but you are bound and determined to stay locked in the status quo as long as you can.

  Quite frankly though, you voted Nikki Haley into office and now you are howling for her blood... what did you expect then and what do you expect now voting for Newt Gingrich for president?  Maybe the education standards here will improve? Maybe the back breaking taxes imposed on you by Washington and the State of South Carolina will be eased? Maybe the worst unemployment rate in the country will start to see some improvement?

  I think not, but I do think just because you pride yourselves on being 'Southern' to the point of self-mutilation, you will happily live in the dark ages for years to come.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Thief robs choir in church

Members were practicing; money, phones taken

As the strains of "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus" filled the sanctuary, a man with a long gun interrupted choir practice Wednesday in a Goose Creek church and made off with purses, wallets and cell phones.
"He yelled, 'Get on the floor! Get on the floor!' the whole time he was coming down the aisle of the church," said one of the nine robbery victims, 77-year-old Dorothy Causey, on Thursday.
Causey, who has prosthetic legs and a walker to get about, was unable to get on the floor of St. James United Methodist Church. The robber then pointed the gun in her face and ordered her to get out her wallet, she said.
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"I close my eyes and that's all I can see," a still shaken Causey said.
Goose Creek Police Department spokeswoman Jesica Johnson said the gunman entered the church at 512 St. James Ave. at about 8 p.m., and fled on foot.
A manhunt aided by Berkeley County Sheriff's Office personnel and tracking dogs failed to find the robber.
From among the victims, police got some variations in the descriptions of the suspect and his clothing. Police said the consensus was the man was black, 20 to 50 years old, about 5 feet, 6 inches to 5 feet, 11 inches tall, wearing beige pants or blue jeans, and a black cap or hoodie.
The gunman carried either a shotgun or a rifle, and had "Gullah like" speech and used vulgar language, victims told police.
"Investigators are actively following up leads in this case," Johnson said.
Causey said the choir had just chosen the hymn they would perform at Sunday's service, and had begun to rehearse it, when the gunman walked in through an unlocked door.
"I watched the man and he had a gun. The first thing that was going through my mind is that somebody is playing a prank, but when he raised the shotgun, we all knew it was for real," Causey said.
As a double amputee, Causey was one of two choir members physically unable to lie on the floor. After seven victims complied with his order, "He pointed the gun at me and yelled 'Get on the floor!,' " Causey said.
She said that after another choir member informed the robber that Causey could not, he commanded her to "'Get out your wallet and throw it this way.' "
Her purse was on the floor in front of her, Causey said. "I leaned over to my left and reached down and very slowly took my wallet out," she said.
A police report said another of the robbery victims told investigators that the man had the weapon "firmly pulled into his shoulder and was pointing it at the choir as he entered."
The robber "seemed very calm," and during the incident said, "Keep your heads down. I'll blow your head off," the report said.
After gathering wallets and purses, cash, credit and ID cards, keys and cell phones, the robber walked toward a side door. "He yelled, 'Don't get up! Don't get up! Don't get up!' I could see him as he went out the side door," Causey said.
The robber was last seen leaving the parking area on foot. "No one tried to stop him, or we all would have been killed. Still, it was so scary," Causey said.

Monday, January 9, 2012

Patient tries to jump from helicopter

Helicopter makes emergency landing after patient tries to jump out

By Andrew Knapp
Monday, January 9, 2012


A 26-year-old man who jumped from an SUV on Interstate 95 near Walterboro later tried to leap from the helicopter transporting him to the hospital Saturday evening, forcing the aircraft to land.
According to the Colleton County Sheriff’s Office, Altoro Alveriz was a backseat passenger in a Ford Expedition around 6:45 p.m. Saturday. Two other men in the vehicle said they were laborers who had finished work in Denmark and were heading south, back to Florida.
Around mile marker 60 on I-95, which is just north of the Bells Highway interchange, the vehicle’s other occupants said they were listening to music and joking around when they heard a rear window being rolled down, according to the incident report. Then they saw Alveriz climbing through it.
Their attempts to catch Alveriz by his shirt failed, and the man fell onto the pavement, they told deputies. The Ford was traveling about 70 mph, they estimated.
Alveriz’s head was bleeding when rescuers arrived. A LifeNet helicopter later started to transport Alveriz to Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston when he became combative with paramedics about five minutes into the flight.
“The guy broke loose and was fighting with the crew, which is dangerous with that small helicopter,” said Barry McRoy, director of Colleton County Fire and Rescue. “They had to wrestle with a guy in a helicopter. … It had the potential to be a bad situation.”
Deputies said Alveriz attempted to jump out of the helicopter, which promptly landed at Lowcountry Regional Airport. McRoy said deputies and paramedics then fitted Alveriz with a sleeve that prevented him from moving his arms and legs.
He was then transported by ambulance to the Charleston hospital, where he was placed under intensive care. His condition Monday was not known.
None of the medics were injured.
Alveriz’s co-workers told sheriff’s investigators that he had been visibly upset earlier in the day, after placing a phone call to someone from Mexico. They said he started drinking Bud Light and had been consuming the beer “all day,” the report said.
Sheriff’s investigators said Alveriz’s two co-workers continued their trip to North Florida.