Across South Caarolina

Sanford signs bill to cut property taxes

COLUMBIA - Gov. Mark Sanford on Saturday signed a bill that will reduce property tax bills and raise the state's sales tax to pay for the cut.

Mr. Sanford said the law will cut an average homeowner's tax bill by 60 percent.

The law also reduces the sales tax on groceries to 3 percent from 5 percent.

The governor said he thinks lawmakers should have done more to provide tax relief to residents in a year when state revenues increased by $1 billion.

The changes take effect in June 2007.

Police suspend officer as chase inquiry starts

FLORENCE - A state trooper has been suspended without pay as authorities investigate a chase involving a dump truck last month.

Public Safety Department spokesman Sid Gaulden would not say why investigators are looking into the actions of Brad Sawyer, who has been a trooper since 2000.

Public Safety investigators are reviewing the chase and arrest. Depending on what they find, the investigation could be turned over to the State Law Enforcement Division.

The May 28 chase began when Latta police clocked a dump truck going 65 mph in a 25 mph zone, Mr. Gaulden said.

The chase ended up on Interstate 95 and went south through Dillon, Florence and Sumter counties. After the dump truck sideswiped a Highway Patrol car, troopers fired on it, hitting the truck's fuel tank, Mr. Gaulden said.

14 years later, missing woman has DNA profile

COLUMBIA - Authorities have created a DNA profile of a missing Columbia woman nearly 14 years after she disappeared.

Dail Dinwiddie, a then-23-year-old college student, was last seen in September 1992 during a night out in Columbia.

A new tip six weeks ago led Richland County deputies to revisit her disappearance, Sheriff Leon Lott said.

The tip didn't pan out, but investigators looking at old evidence found a strand of hair on Ms. Dinwiddie's brush and used it to get a sample of her DNA, Sheriff Lott said.

Before, investigators had DNA only from Ms. Dinwiddie's parents.

The DNA will be logged into a national database.

It could be used to identify a body or help if police make an arrest in Ms. Dinwiddie's disappearance.

Woman dies after drug charge arrest

GREENWOOD - A 23-year-old Greenwood woman died shortly after she was arrested on drug charges.

Deputies took Shatica Fuller into custody Thursday after buying an ounce of cocaine from her, Greenwood County deputies said.

At the jail, a small, partially chewed plastic bag of white powder was found in Ms. Fuller's mouth.

She spit it out, but before she could be checked out by a nurse, her heart stopped and she collapsed, dying two hours later at the hospital, authorities said.