Art museum plans for masterpiece exhibit
COLUMBIA --- The Columbia Museum of Art is preparing for its most expensive exhibition.
The State newspaper reported Friday the museum plans to spend $500,000 to host a traveling exhibition featuring work by Paul Cezanne, Vincent van Gogh and other well-known artists.
The exhibition, called "Turner to Cezanne: Masterpieces from the Davies Collection, National Museum Wales," comes to the museum in 2009. Columbia is its first stop.
The 47 paintings and six works on paper are being shown in the United States for the first time. Works will be on display for three months starting in March.
People who held rabid raccoon get treated
HILTON HEAD ISLAND --- More than a dozen people in Hilton Head are being treated by a doctor after they held, fed or kissed a baby raccoon that later tested positive for rabies.
Department of Health and Environmental Control officials tell The Island Packet of Hilton Head that 16 people are being evaluated. Seven more people might need vaccines to prevent them from contracting rabies.
DHEC spokeswoman Clair Boatwright said someone adopted the 3-week-old raccoon and the animal became ill Monday.
McCain denies claim he voted against Bush
COLUMBIA — Republican John McCain on Friday disputed blogger Arianna Huffington's contention that she heard him say he voted against President Bush in 2000.
In a report, Ms. Huffington insisted she heard Mr. McCain say, at a Los Angeles dinner party after the 2000 election, he had not voted for Mr. Bush.
Mr. McCain's campaign said Thursday she was making up the story to promote a book .
"I voted, campaigned for, worked as hard as I could for President Bush's election in 2000 and 2004," Mr. McCain told reporters.
Mr. McCain, now the likely GOP nominee, lost a bitter presidential primary race in 2000 to Mr. Bush.
Later Friday in South Carolina, Mr. McCain refused to answer a question aboutwhether he would choose the state's governor, Republican Mark Sanford, as his running mate.
Man dies in stabbing; another found wounded
GREENVILLE, S.C. --- Authorities on Friday night said a man died a few hours after he stumbled on to a busy Greenville road screaming for help and saying he had been stabbed.
The coroner's office said the victim is a 59-year-old man but did not release his name.
Paramedics picked up a second man with stab wounds at a home not far away.
Authorities think the two men were fighting Friday afternoon, but they don't know what about.
Prisoner's death ruled suicide by overdose
GREENVILLE, S.C. --- Authorities say a 35-year-old prisoner serving a life sentence for murder killed himself with an overdose of prescription drugs in February.
Prisons spokesman Josh Gelinas told The Greenville News that investigators initially thought James Bell Jr. died of natural causes in his cell, but an autopsy found the overdose.
Mr. Bell had been serving a life sentence since he was convicted of murder in Orangeburg County in 1993.
Mr. Gelinas said prison officials are still investigating Mr. Bell's death.
-- Edited from wire reports
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