Across South Carolina

Loan repayment gets approved by council

NORTH CHARLESTON - North Charleston City Council has approved accepting an $8.5 million loan repayment from the company working with the city on a major redevelopment project.

Some city leaders have worried about the financial health of the Noisette Co.

The city financed the sale of about 300 acres of land on the old Charleston Naval Base in 2003 that is to be part of the redevelopment project.

Mayor Pro Tem Phoebe Miller said she hopes the repayment will invigorate the project designed to create hundreds of new houses, offices and stores.

Noisette officials have not said why the company wants to pay off its debt now.

Fiberglass operation will create 150 jobs

COLUMBIA - A company will create 150 jobs when it opens a fiberglass insulation operation at the old Mack Truck plant in Winnsboro.

Guardian Industries will install equipment to produce molten glass from sand and other ingredients.

The plant would be able to generate 80 million pounds annually of fiberglass batting for walls and floors and loose fibers blown into attics.

The jobs are expected to pay more than $12 per hour, considerably less than the $22 per hour the Mack workers were paid.

Mack at one time employed 1,300 workers in Winnsboro.

Man trapped in room dies in house fire

CHARLESTON - A Charleston man has died after he was trapped in an upstairs bedroom when a fire started in the house.

Charles Rivers, 58, was found by firefighters in a locked room near a window from which he tried to escape late Wednesday night. He was taken to a hospital where he died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Mr. Rivers' brother, Luther, and Eric Wright tried to get to the victim but were driven back by the smoke as they climbed the stairs.

The fire appears to have been started by a short in an extension cord.

Colonel says Beaufort air show is canceled

BEAUFORT - The air space over Beaufort will be quieter this spring.

The air station's commanding officer, Col. Robert Lanham, announced Thursday that the 2006 Lowcountry Blues Festival Air Show has been canceled.

- Edited from wire reports