Firefighter is injured in three-house blaze

GREENVILLE - A firefighter needed hospital treatment after an early-morning blaze in Anderson that destroyed two houses and damaged another. No one was in the homes at the time.

Anderson Fire Department Battalion Chief Dale Horne said the firefighter was treated and released after responding to a blaze that destroyed a vacant house before spreading to another home that was being remodeled.

Vinyl siding on a third building was melted by the fire.

Other firefighters were treated on the scene for minor burns, Chief Horne said.

The cause of the first blaze remains under investigation with the help of the State Law Enforcement Division, he said.

City council to meet on hospital in secret

ANDERSON - A city council committee plans to meet behind closed doors with representatives of AnMed Health Medical Center to discuss the hospital's tax status.

Negotiations will be closed to the public because they would involve contractual matters, Mayor Richard Shirley said.

An attorney for the South Carolina Press Association says such a meeting would be illegal.

Dan Corrigan, AnMed Health spokesman, said he did not know enough about what would be discussed to have an opinion on whether the meetings should be open.

The city has been considering charging the health system a tax or fee on property it rents to private doctors' offices on its campus.

Health system leaders have argued the nonprofit hospitals' campus is tax-exempt.

Mr. Shirley said a recent ruling from the Revenue Department states AnMed Health's for-profit businesses are not tax-exempt.

Revenue Department spokesman Danny Brazell said there has not been a specific ruling on AnMed's situation, but there was a generic ruling on the topic.

The ruling states that every item of property owned by a charitable entity that operates a hospital should not necessarily be tax-exempt.

Coastal Carolina picks dean for new provost

CONWAY - Coastal Carolina University has named David DeCenzo to the school's top academic post.

Mr. DeCenzo is dean of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration and joined Coastal's faculty in 2002.

He replaces Peter B. Barr as provost. Mr. Barr is stepping down as provost to become president of Glenville State College in Glenville, W.Va.

Two men arrested in shooting at nightclub

BISHOPVILLE - Two men have been arrested in the weekend shooting at Mr. C's nightclub in Lee County that killed two people and wounded 11 others, the sheriff's department said Monday.

Jeremy McMillan, 21, has been charged with two counts of murder, Maj. Daniel Simon said.

Adrian Ingram, 28, was charged with assault and battery with intent to kill.

- From wire reports